Must-win situation
Panthers host Texarkana on Friday
There’s no backdoor for Siloam Springs to get in to the Class 6A playoffs. The Panthers must go through the front door.
Siloam Springs hosts Texarkana on Friday night at Panther Stadium for senior night, and if the Panthers want to keep their playoff hopes alive for another week, they have to defeat the Razorbacks.
“There’s a lot riding on this one,” said Siloam Springs head coach Bryan Ross.
A win does not guarantee a playoff berth for Siloam Springs (2-6, 1-4), which has lost its last four ballgames since winning at Sheridan on Sept. 22.
But a loss would eliminate the Panthers from postseason contention heading into their regular season finale at Russellville on Nov. 3.
Siloam Springs has been mercy-ruled in three of its last four games, with the exception being a 34-27 loss at home to Lake Hamilton in a game that had major postseason implications. In the other three games, the Panthers have lost 49-14 to Benton, 38-0 to Greenwood and 37-7 last week at El Dorado.
“We know this one’s important like we knew the Lake Hamilton game was important,” Ross said. “Of course all of them are important, but you look at El Dorado and you see how talented they are and you know, I mean going down there and playing, that’s a tall order.”
The Panthers endured a sixhour bus trip to El Dorado last week and fell behind 34-0 at halftime to the No. 2-ranked Wildcats. They returned home at 3:30 a.m. Saturday, and some of the coaches didn’t leave the fieldhouse until after 5 a.m.
In the loss to El Dorado, Ross was disappointed in the effort the Panthers gave the first half, but he thought they played better in the second half.
“Like I said the other night, I don’t think we competed the way we should have in the first half,” he said. “I thought we rebounded
in the second half and showed a little more life.”
The status of junior starting quarterback Landon “L.T.” Ellis was not available at presstime. Ellis went down with a knee injury in the first half at El Dorado to the same knee he had repaired surgically his freshman year after he tore his ACL.
The early prognosis was that Ellis was going to be OK, but as of this writing he wasn’t able to get an MRI scheduled until later this week, Ross said.
“He said he felt pretty good on it, so hopefully he can go,” Ross said of Ellis.
If Ellis cannot play, the quarterbacking duties will fall to talented sophomore Taylor Pool, who played in relief of Ellis at El Dorado.
Pool had a tough first half against the Wildcats, getting sacked four times for minus 26 yards and completing just two passes for 11 yards under heavy duress.
Pool played better in the second half, completing three passes for 38 yards and rushing three times for 42 yards.
“We’ll prepare like we always Overall Conf. Team W-L W-L
Greenwood 8-0 5-0
El Dorado 7-1 4-1
Benton 5-3 3-2
Russellville 4-4 3-2 Texarkana 4-4 2-3
Lake Hamilton 3-5 2-3
Siloam Springs 2-6 1-4 Sheridan 0-8 0-5
Sept. 1
Rogers 34, Siloam Springs 33 Bryant 49, Benton 42
El Dorado 29, Camden Fairview 7
Greenwood 34, FS Northside 7 Lake Hamilton 35, Hot Springs 7 LR McClellan 51, Sheridan 13 Morrilton 21, Russellville 20 Pleasant Grove (Texas) 27, Texarkana 20
Sept. 8
Harrison 48, Siloam Springs 12 Arkadelphia 56, Sheridan 0 Benton 39, LR Parkview 25 El Dorado 28, Cabot 24 Greenwood 49, FS Southside 0 Lake Hamilton 56, Malvern 27 Russellville 43, Rogers Heritage 20 Texarkana (Ark.) 7, Texarkana (Texas) 0
Sept. 15
Siloam Springs 35, Van Buren 21 Benton 42, Greenbrier 16 Bryant 56, Lake Hamilton 7 El Dorado 51, Magnolia 28 Greenwood 54, Alma 28 Springdale 31, Russellville 28 Texarkana 30, Camden Fairview 14 White Hall 49, Sheridan 13
do,” Ross said. “If L.T. can go, then he’ll go. If he won’t, then Taylor will go. No need to hold anything back. We need to throw everything we can at them Sept. 22
Siloam Springs 31, Sheridan 24 Benton 42, Russellville 20 El Dorado 35, Lake Hamilton 13 Greenwood 38, Texarkana 17
Sept. 29
Benton 49, Siloam Springs 14 Greenwood 52, El Dorado 21 Russellville 28, Sheridan 14 Texarkana 14, Lake Hamilton 9
Oct. 6
Greenwood 38, Siloam Springs 0 El Dorado 49, Sheridan 14 Russellville 40, Lake Hamilton 35 Benton 38, Texarkana 19
Oct. 13
Lake Hamilton 34, Siloam Springs 27
El Dorado 27, Benton 20 Greenwood 38, Russellville 13 Texarkana 35, Sheridan 21
Oct. 20
El Dorado 37, Siloam Springs 7 Greenwood 33, Benton 17 Lake Hamilton 40, Sheridan 13 Russellville 23, Texarkana 20
Oct. 27
Texarkana at Siloam Springs Benton at Lake Hamilton El Dorado at Russellville Sheridan at Greenwood
Nov. 3
Siloam Springs at Russellville Greenwood at Lake Hamilton Sheridan at Benton Texarkana at El Dorado
and try to win it.”
Ellis isn’t the only Panther banged up.
Siloam Springs hasn’t had junior wide receiver/ cornerback Primo Agbehi for the last three games with an injured hand. They’re optimistic he’ll return this week to play on defense.
Junior center Dillon Conn went out of the Sheridan game with a concussion, missed the games against Benton and Greenwood and played briefly against Lake Hamilton. He didn’t play against El Dorado with sophomore Marco Salcedo starting in his absence.
“We’ll need all hands on deck and we need to play well,” Ross said.
The game is an important one for the Razorbacks (4-4, 2-3) as well, who can clinch a playoff berth with a victory. Texarkana — or Arkansas High, as it’s known — is under first-year coach Barry Norton, who led Texas High (Texarkana, Texas) to a 152-25-1 record, 17 playoff appearances and one state championship in 18 seasons. He took over the Razorbacks program when Todd Ledford resigned in the offseason.
The Razorbacks opened the season with a 27-20 loss to Pleasant Grove, Texas, but rebounded to beat Texas High 7-0 in Week 2 and then defeated Camden Fairview 30-14 in Week 3.
The Razorbacks led Greenwood 17-13 at halftime of their 6A-West Conference opener, only to lose, 38-17. Arkansas High bounced back with a 14-9 win at Lake Hamilton in Week 5, but lost at Benton 38-19 the next week.
The Razorbacks defeated Sheridan 35-21 in Week 7 but lost 23-20 to Russellville last week.
Arkansas High defeated Siloam Springs 51-28 last year in Texarkana.
“I don’t think they’re as explosive offensively as they were last year,” Ross said. “They moved their quarterback (Drake Browning) to receiver and have brought in a sophomore at quarterback. They still have obviously big-play potential. It’s going to be a matter of being able to block and tackle. We didn’t do a good job of tackling last year. So we’ve got to do a much better job of that. It’s going to come back to blocking and tackling. If we can tackle well and stay on our blocks a little while, then we’ll have a chance.”
It will be the third meeting between Siloam Springs and Texarkana. The Panthers defeated the Razorbacks 26-13 in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs in 2014.
If the Panthers don’t win Friday, it will be the third straight season they’ve missed the Class 6A playoffs.
“We’ve got to get this one this week,” Ross said.
Siloam Springs will honor 19 senior football players before the game. They are: Kevin Canales, Jonathan Flamenco, Kameron Greenlee, Luke Gumm, Seth Hufford, Jackson Knight, Isaac Knudsen, Tristan Moose, Jeremy Mote, Alejandro Munoz, Rueben Nino, Payton Norberg, Jorge Perez, Austin Rodriguez, Jacob Rowe, Braden Smartt, Marquan Sorrells, Nolan Wallis and Wyatt Washington.
“I think with most seniors, it’s the kids that have been here and stayed in the program,” Ross said. “You’ll remember their commitment, their hard work, kids that make it all the way through our program, I think they’re the ones that are going to be leaders in society. They have the qualities that you look for in a good employee and things like that. Football’s a tough sport. It takes a lot of discipline. It takes a lot of effort. I know football’s gotten a bad rap in recent years, but I think it teaches so much. You remember all these kids that put a lot of effort and heart into it. Hopefully, they take a lot of lessons with them into life.”