Panthers, Pointers familiar foes
The Siloam Springs and Van Buren football teams have played to a stalemate the past six seasons.
Playing regularly since 2012, each team has won three games. Both the Panthers and Pointers have won a pair of road games and one home game each, with Siloam Springs winning last year’s game at Panther Stadium 35-21.
The Panthers and Pointers meet up for the seventh straight time on Friday when the Panthers head south to Blakemore Field at Citizens Bank Stadium.
“I think it’s a good game for us,” said first-year SSHS coach Brandon Craig, who will be getting his first look at the Pointers. “They definitely have some guys
that can run. We’re going to have to do a great job of containing them.”
Van Buren is also under the leadership of a new head coach in former Arkansas Razorback QB Casey Dick, who started most of four years at Arkansas under Houston Nutt and Bobby Petrino. Dick was the Hogs’ starting quarterback in the 2006 SEC Championship game against Florida. Dick passed for 5,856 yards and 47 touchdowns in his career at Arkansas.
Dick, who coached in Bentonville’s junior high system and was an assistant coach at Bentonville West, inherited a Van Buren team that had struggled in recent years with a record of 4-26, including an 0-10 mark last year.
The former Razorback has helped jump-start the Pointers so far as Van Buren kicked off its season with a 48-33 win against Crawford County rival Alma in the annual Battle of the Bone. The win was Van Buren’s first in the series since 2010.
Van Buren quarterback Christian Morrow completed 21 of 32 passes for 219 yards and a touchdown in that game, while Gary Phillips completed all three of his passes for 75 yards and two touchdowns.
Brayden Rivas rushed for 162 yards on 20 carries
against the Airedales and scored twice, while catching eight passes for 71 yards. Receiver Logan Humphries had four catches for 71 yards. Receiver Jude Bartholomew had four catches for 74 yards against Alma.
The Pointers hung with Fort Smith Northside early last week, but the Grizzlies eventually pulled away for a 46-21 win.
“They’re very athletic,” Craig said. “The quarterback is a kid that can make a lot of plays happen in and out of the pocket. They have good receivers, a good tight end. They’re very explosive on offense. We’ve got a big chore ahead of us as far as containing the QB.
“Defensively, the Greenwood defensive coordinator (Kenneth Chick) went over there, so we’ve got a lot of film on him and what he likes to do. For us, it’s really going to come down to winning the trenches. Are we going to be able to win the battle on the inside, the offensive and defensive line?”
The Panthers, meanwhile, are coming off a 42-7 loss to Harrison in their home opener Friday night.
“Our kids really played tough Friday night, even though the score doesn’t indicate it,” Craig said. “We ran the ball well. We played tough up front. We just have to do a better job of making plays in space.”
Running back Kaiden Thrailkill rushed for 147 yards on 29 carries, his second straight game topping the century mark on the ground.
But the Panthers struggled in the passing game, completing just 6 of 19 passes for 40 yards. The Panthers threw four interceptions.
“We did a really poor job in the passing game as far as execution and taking care of the football,” Craig said. “So those are things we have to clean up this week and get better at.”