Cyclones storm back
■ The Panthers lost 30-16 on senior night.
Russellville earned the No. 3 seed out of the 6A-West Conference by weathering the storm and showing plenty of resolve.
The Cyclones rallied from an early 10-0 hole to storm back and spoil Siloam Springs’ senior night with a 30-16 win at Panther Stadium.
“Weather the storm,” said Russellville coach Jeff Weaver. “We talked all week about ‘finish.’ That was our theme all week long. Late in the year, finish every rep, every play, every drive. I just told them, I wasn’t thrilled about the way we started the game but man did we ever finish it from the second quarter on.”
The Cyclones (7-3, 5-2) will now host Sylvan Hills next week in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs, while Siloam Springs (5-5, 3-4) will be the fifth seed and travel to Searcy.
After being held to just 37 yards of offense in the first quarter, the Cyclones exploded in the second quarter for 215 yards and three scores to take a 17-10 halftime lead.
Russellville’s Jaidon Palmer got loose on a sweep for a 43yard touchdown run to make it 10-7 and Aaron Williams turned a short pass into a 54yard touchdown.
Wesley Robinson booted a 41-yard field goal as time expired in the first half to put the Cyclones up 17-10.
A long kickoff return by Palmer set up another Robinson field goal on the opening drive of the third quarter for a 20-10 lead.
Siloam Springs looked to answer and drove inside the red zone, but Landon Ellis’ pass was intercepted by Johnny Bucher to snuff out the drive.
The Cyclones got a third field goal from Robinson to go up 23-10 and added a touchdown run by Daniel Espinoza midway through the fourth quarter for a 3010 advantage.
Kaiden Thrailkill scored a touchdown for the Panthers in the fourth quarter, but it was too little too late for Siloam Springs.
The Panthers scored on their opening possession of the game on a 14-yard run by Landon Ellis, which was set up by his 40-yard pass to Primo Agbehi.
Siloam Springs made it into the red zone three more times in the first half and only came away with three points.
“I think we had four trips to the red zone, and I think we only had 10 points,” Siloam Springs coach Brandon Craig said. “That’s something you can’t do. We missed tackles in space, which No. 7 (Palmer) is a very special player. He is a kid I watched all week on film, and he does things that high school kids don’t do. He never gives up on a route. He always keeps working. Always finds a way to get open. and he did that tonight and he made us look bad at times, and there’s no way around that.”
Palmer caught eight passes for 113 yards and ran for 59 yards on six carries. Russellville quarterback Rhett Adkins completed 18 of 25 passes for 267 yards and he also caught 30-yard pass which set up a Russellville field goal. The Cyclones had 395 yards of total offense.
The Panthers finished with 334 yards of offense. Thrailkill had 28 carries for 143 yards, while Ellis completed 12 of 21 passes for 154 yards and rushed 10 times for 37 yards.