Great start, tough finish
Late turnovers result in loss for Panthers
Mounties 34, Panthers 33
Siloam Springs’ theme for the season is “finish,” but the Panthers couldn’t slam the door on Rogers on Friday in their seasonopener.
Siloam Springs watched a twotouchdown lead slip away in the late in the fourth quarter, and the Panthers fumbled twice in the final three minutes as Rogers rallied for a 34-33 victory in front of a big opening night crowd at Panther Stadium.
For a program coming off a tough 1-9 season, the loss was a particularly tough one to swallow having gotten so close to the taste of victory.
Head coach Bryan Ross, in his ninth season as head coach, was both discouraged and encouraged at the way things turned out Friday night. Discouraged, obviously, because of the disappointing result, but he was inspired by the effort the team gave despite being a 21-point underdog.
“I told them, just like we were talking about in here a minute ago, part of you is sick because in essence we gave it away,” Ross said. “But part of me is incredibly proud of the effort and what these kids have done. I think they’re out to prove that they’re a lot better football team than people think they are — a lot better than last year. I couldn’t be more proud of the effort and the preparation and all that. We’ve just got to clean up a couple of mistakes and we win the game.”
Siloam Springs looked like it had put the game away with 4 minutes, 11 seconds left when Landon Ellis scored on a nineyard run to put the Panthers up 33-21. Siloam Springs went for a two-point conversion but Ellis’ passed missed and the lead remained 12.
The Mounties took over on their 38-yard line after a Siloam Springs personal foul on the kickoff and sophomore quarterback Hunter Loyd hit a 13-yard pass to Colin McWhorter to move into Panthers territory.
Rogers then went to its bag of tricks and threw a flee-flicker like pass from Loyd to Garrett Dake for a 38-yard strike down to the Siloam Springs’ 10.
Loyd then hit McWhorter for a 10-yard touchdown with 3:05 left as Rogers pulled within 33-28.
Siloam Springs got its hands team ready for a possible onside kick, but the Mounties kicked it deep and senior Marquan Sorrells, trying to ensure possession, mistakenly called for a fair catch at the four-yard line.
The Panthers’ offense lost a fumble two plays later and Rogers recovered on the 1-yard line. Rogers running back A-ron Jones scored on the next play to give the Mounties a 34-33 lead with 1:56 left.
Siloam Springs still had no time to answer the score, taking possession with no timeouts left.
Ellis hit Tristan Moose over the middle for 34 yards into Rogers territory, and Moose caught another short pass for six yards down to the 39 as the Panthers tried to move into position to kick a field goal.
But Kaiden Thrailkill, who had a tremendous game for the Panthers, fumbled while fighting for extra yardage and Rogers’ Andrew McGlynn recovered with 43 seconds left.
The Mounties lined up in victory formation and Loyd took a knee as Rogers escaped with the improbable come-from-behind victory.
“These kids are resilient,” said Rogers coach Mike Loyd. “They never gave up. We’ve got about 10 sophomores out here and five returning starters. I can’t say enough about how they played and responded for four quarters. We talked to them about it at halftime. You could kind of see the nerves when we started out. … Our kids played hard and they deserved to win.”
It was all Siloam Springs early in the game.
The Panthers defense stuffed the Mounties on their first two offensive possessions, and Siloam Springs cashed in on offense with two straight short fields.
Ellis hit Primo Agbehi for a 24-yard strike to set up Thrailkill’s first touchdown, a seven-yard run with 8:17 left as Siloam Springs took a 7-0 lead.
After another stop, the Panthers made it 14-0 on a 10-yard run by Thrailkill with 3:39 left in the first quarter. That play was set up by a 24-yard catch by Luke Gumm.
Rogers responded to cut it to 14-7 after Loyd found McWhorter for a 45-yard strike down to the 5, and Jones carried twice for five yards to put the Mounties on the board with 55 seconds left in the first quarter.
Siloam Springs went back to work on offense. The Panthers moved 30 yards in seven plays and Ellis then hit Gumm for a 35-yard touchdown over the middle to put Siloam Springs up 21-7.
After another stop by the defense, the Panthers got another big play from Gumm when he zig-zagged through the Mounties special teams for a 80-yard punt return.
Thrailkill took a direct snap out of the Wildcat formation for a six-yard touchdown, his third touchdown of the night, to make it 27-7 with 5:12 left before halftime.
The Panthers seemed on the verge of a blowout at that point as their defense came up with a Rogers turnover deep in Siloam Springs territory.
The Panthers offense stalled for the first time on the ensuing drive and were forced to attempt a punt out of their own endzone when they made their first big mistake of the night.
The Panthers’ special teams unit got beat on the edge and put a hard rush on Thrailkill, the punter. He tucked the ball and ran to avoid a safety, but he was tackled well short of the first down and the Panthers turned the ball over on downs.
Rogers took over at its own 10-yard line and scored three plays later on a oneyard quarterback keeper by sophomore Hunter Loyd to pull within 27-14 with 1:33 left before halftime.
The Panthers seemed to respond to the score and moved the football, but Ellis threw an interception in the end zone just before halftime.
Siloam Springs got the opening possession of the second half and drove inside the Mounties’ red zone, but the Panthers came up empty turning the ball over on downs at the 14.
“You can look at probably 10 to 15 plays, but that’s what happens in close ballgames,” Ross said. “We just didn’t execute a couple of times when we really needed to. Give them credit, they took advantage of their opportunities. I told the kids, look, we’re going to be a whole lot better than people think. Long run, we hope this makes us better and that we learn something from it.”
The Mounties took advantage of the missed scoring chance.
Loyd hit McWhorter for 43 yards on fourth-and-three down to the four-yard line, and Loyd scored three plays later to make it 27-21 with 3:54 left in the third.
The Panthers had to punt on their next possession, and Rogers went on the march again with a chance to take the lead. Gumm snuffed out that possession though with an interception at the 19.
Ellis an the offense took the field again and he hit Agbehi for 39 yards over the middle on third-and-12 to keep a drive alive. The Panthers then rushed six straight times for 44 yards, capped by Ellis’ score to put the Panthers up 33-21 with 4:11 left.
Ellis in his debut as the Panthers’ starting quarterback, completed 17 of 26 passes for 262 yards. Gumm caught seven passes for 112 yards, while Agbehi had three catches for 69 yards and Moose had three receptions for 62 yards.
The Panthers rushed for 188 yards on 39 carries, led by Thrailkill’s 30 carries for 160 yards and three touchdowns. Overall Siloam Springs had 450 yards of offense.
Rogers had 366 yards of offense, including 310 in the air from Loyd, who completed 17 of 27 passes.
“That’s kind of special,” Mike Loyd said of his son’s performance. “First time he’s started, get his first win, get his first win together. It means a lot to me. It means a lot to him, but we’ve got 75 other kids it means a whole lot to too. But it’s a special moment.”
McWhorter caught 11 passes for 223 yards for the Mounties, who host Claremore, Okla., this week. Siloam Springs plays at Harrison this Friday. The Goblins rallied from 19-9 down in the second half last year to hand the Panthers a 3919 loss. Harrison defeated Mountain Home 27-7 last Friday.