Panthers shine in scrimmage
ROGERS — Siloam Springs’ offense looked like it was in midseason form Friday in the Panthers’ benefit game against Rogers Heritage.
The Panthers scored touchdowns on all six of their offensive possessions and routed the War Eagles 42-0 in a twoquarter Arkansas Activities Association benefit game at David Gates Stadium.
Siloam Springs running back Palvinson Phizema broke a 46-yard touchdown run on the Panthers’ first possession, and quarterback Hunter Talley completed his first eight passes before finishing 9 of 10 for 168 yards.
Overall, the offense piled up 355 yards of offense in just 24 minutes of action on the field.
“Bottom line is I thought our quarterback did a great job of knowing our offense, running our offense and executing almost to perfection,” said Siloam Springs coach Brandon Craig. “That’s what we want as a quarterback. We didn’t know what to expect coming into the game because we haven’t played since last November.”
Phizema opened up the game with an eight-yard run and Talley hit Elijah Coffey for seven yards and Nathan Lee for nine to the War Eagles’ 46.
Phizema then took a handoff up the middle and blew past the Heritage defense for the score with 10:14 remaining in the first quarter.
Heritage answered with a long drive, which was helped by a short pass that went for a 49-yard from Jeb Brown to Eli Craig down to the 18.
The War Eagles made it down to the 5 after a 14-yard run by Brown, but Craig fumbled and Christian Ledeker recovered in the endzone for the Panthers turnover.
On the next play, Coffey got behind the War Eagles’ defense and Talley found him for a 70-yard touchdown with 8:01 remaining.
Siloam Springs’ defense forced a Heritage punt on the next possession, and the Panthers went back to work on offense.
Talley ran for nine yards and hit Gavin Henson for gains of 14 and 17 yards to the 30. Talley ran for 12 yards, hit Brendan Lashley for seven and then Talley ran for seven more down to the 1.
Camden Collins ran in the touchdown as Siloam Springs went ahead 21-0 with 2:54 left in the first.
The Panthers forced a turnover on down on Heritage’s side of the field on the next possession and the SSHS offense cashed in on a short field.
Zach Gunneman rushed for 13 yards and Talley hit Lashley for a 15-yard gain down to the 1. Talley then ran in for the score with 13 seconds left before halftime.
After forcing a Heritage punt to open the second half, Talley and the offense went back to work. He hit Lashley for 16 yards for his eighth straight completion. Then after throwing his first incomplete pass, he hit Lashley again for a 13 yard gain to the 23.
Talley rushed for 10 yards and Gunneman ran in from 13 yards out for a 35-0 score.
The Panthers kept things on the ground on their final offensive possession and scoring drive. Gunneman broke an 18-yard run, followed by a run of 11 from Talley and two runs from Phizema for 15 yards.
Collins scored from 5 yards out to set the final score.
The Panthers rushed 20 times for 187 yards. Phizema had 75 yards on six carries, while Talley rushed for 50 on seven carries. Gunneman had 44 yards on three carries, while Collins had four carries for 18 yards.
Coffey finished with two receptions for 77 yards, while Lashley had four catches for 51 yards, Henson two for 31 and Lee one for nine.
“I think it goes back to practice,” Brandon Craig said of his skill players. “I think our practice tempo and what we expect to practice, we put a lot of pressure on those guys. We get on them a lot in practice. I think they responded well tonight.”
Defensively, the Panthers held Heritage to 156 yards of total offense.
Heritage quarterback Jeb Brown completed 9 of 18 passes for 72 yards. The War Eagles rushed 20 times for 84 yards.
Ledeker intercepted a pass on Heritage’s last play of the game one play after Henson nearly came down with an interception.
“I thought our kids came out they were very physical,” Craig said.
“They got after it. I feel like we really dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. (Heritage) had a couple of nice runs, but overall I couldn’t ask for more from a team on the first night back since November.”
The one negative for Siloam Springs on the night was junior defensive lineman J.P. Wills going down with an apparent knee injury in the second half. Wills had to be helped off the field and he will be reevaluated this week.
Now the Panthers will prepare for their season opener Friday against Rogers at Panther Stadium. Rogers defeated Harrison in a scrimmage 21-14 earlier last week.
“Next week’s a whole different animal,” Craig said. “We’re going to be scheming up Rogers. They’re going to be scheming up us. They’ll be ready for us. We know it will be a different type situation.”