Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Mounties top Panthers
New coach successful with Rogers’ win over Siloam
ROGERS — The Rogers Mountaineers made sure Mike Loyd’s debut as head coach was a successful one.
The Mounties showed off their new wide-open spread offense in a 45-9 victory over Siloam Springs in both teams’ season- openers at Whitey Smith Stadium.
Rogers — after only mustering 78 yards total against the Panthers in a season-opening 18-6 loss in 2015 — piled up 444 yards of offense, which was nearly perfectly balanced at 228 yards on the ground and 216 in the air.
The Mounties ( 1- 0) did have four turnovers on offense, but their defense didn’t let Siloam Springs (0-1) capitalize on any of them and Loyd said that was good to see.
“The No. 1 thing with our kids is they need to learn to win,” Loyd said. “You’re going to have some turnovers like that, but you know what? They didn’t let it get them down. They competed all night for 48 minutes.
“Also I thought our defense played outstanding too. I’m proud of both sides of the ball. Yeah we turned the ball over four times, but the thing I’m most excited about is we played hard for four quarters.”
Rogers quarterback Max Horton showed off his passing skills early, completing his first five passes for 67 yards and leading the Mounties to a 24-yard field goal from Chris Lopez for a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.
Siloam Springs answered back with a 46-yard touchdown pass from Luke Lampton to J.D. Horn, who slipped behind Rogers’ defense for a 7-3 lead with 10:38 left in the first half.
But the Panthers’ lead was short-lived. The Mounties hit a big pass of their own as Horton found Colin McWhorter for a 45-yard strike with 9:17 left as Rogers took the lead for good 10-7.
McWhorter added another touchdown run with 5:06 left in the first half as the Mounties went ahead 17-7 at halftime.
Rogers scored twice in each of the final quarters in the second half as it built its lead up to enforce the mercy rule. The Mounties got two rushing touchdowns in the second half from Jeb Brain, who finished with 23 carries for 190 yards.
Horton threw two more touchdown passes in the fourth quarter — a 22-yard strike to Jake Benninghoff and a 14-yard scoring play to Grayson Lee.
Horton finished 15 off 22 for 216 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. McWhorter led all receivers with eight receptions for 98 yards, while Lee had three for 62 yards.
“Like I’ve been telling them, they’re good football players,” Loyd said. “We’ve got some good football players. They’ve just got to start believing that and maybe now that’s going to help.”
Siloam Springs finished with 234 yards of offense.
The Panthers struggled to move the ball consistently most of the night. Its defense forced four turnovers — interceptions by Kalen Seftner and Luke Gumm and fumble recoveries by Tristan Moose and Jacob Rowe.
“You could sit here and make excuses all day,” said Panthers head coach Bryan Ross. “The bottom line is they just kicked our butt. We’re not a very good team right now. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”