Panthers open 2020 season
Goal line stand, pick six cost Panthers
The Siloam Springs football team takes the field Friday night for its first game of the season against Rogers at Panther Stadium. The Mounties defeated the Panthers 52-42.
Leading by a touchdown late in the third quarter, the Siloam Springs Panthers had a chance to go up by two scores on Rogers, but a goalline stand by the Mounties changed the complexion of the ballgame.
Rogers stuffed the Panthers on fourth-and-goal from the 1 and then reeled off 17 straight points — including a pick six — in the fourth quarter to flip the momentum and take a 52-42 shootout win Friday at Panther Stadium.
The two teams combined for more than 1,100 yards of offense, but Rogers coach Mike Loyd pointed to a pair of defensive plays in the second half that turned things around for the Mounties.
With Siloam Springs leading 35-28, the Mounties stopped Zach Gunneman running wide on fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line.
“The biggest momentum deal was when we found a stop down there on fourth down,” Loyd said. “We do that drill every day at the end of practice.”
The Siloam Springs coaches felt like Gunneman crossed the goalline, which would have given Siloam Springs a two touchdown lead.
“I really felt like we got in from the one,” said Siloam Springs coach Brandon Craig. “From where we were we felt like we got in.”
Instead the ball went to Rogers on the 1. On the very next play, quarterback Chris Francisco threw a 49-yard pass over the middle to Kade Seldomridge at midfield. Several plays later, Francisco scored from 10 yards out on a run to tie the game at 35.
“It was a really big shift, and then they came right back and hit a big pass on us,” said Siloam Springs coach Brandon Craig. “We just didn’t play very good in the secondary all night. I mean we had some breakdowns and it was easy throws. He made a couple of tough throws on third down, but a lot of his throws the kids were just wide open.”
After a fumbled kickoff, Siloam Springs took over at the 10 and quarterback Hunter Talley was intercepted by Matthew Couts around the 15-yard line. Couts returned the interception for a touchdown as Rogers pulled ahead 42-35.
“That was a momentum changer,” Loyd said. “I think the defense made plays when they had to in the second half. We settled down, got lined up right. We were misaligned a few times in the first half, missed some tackles, but came back and made plays when we needed to on both sides.”
The Mounties stopped Siloam Springs on downs on the Panthers’ next possession and came back and got a 20-yard field goal by Yahir Munoz for a 45-35 lead with 2:46 remaining.
Siloam Springs cut the lead to 45-42 when Talley found Elijah Coffey for a 21-yard touchdown — his second touchdown reception of the night — with 1:58 left.
The Panthers then tried an onside kick, but Rogers recovered.
Siloam Springs had a chance to hold Rogers and get the ball back, but Francisco found Josh Sheperd over the middle on third-and-13 for a 66-yard touchdown pass to seal the victory.
Loyd said there was no thought of running the football on thirdand-long with the threat of giving the ball back to the Panthers.
“We’re not going to do that,” he said. “We coach to win. We’re asking our kids to play to win, We’re coaching to win, so we weren’t going to run it. We’ve had that play and that play’s been good to us over the years. It was good to us again.”
Rogers capitalized on three Siloam Springs turnovers, including one on the opening kickoff when Gavin Henson fumbled and the Mounties recovered at the 27.
Francisco ran for a 13-yard touchdown with 10:27 left in the first for a 7-0 lead.
The Panthers offense went three and out on their opening possession, but the defense also forced a Rogers punt midway through the first.
On the first play of the Panthers’ second possession, Talley ran for a 68-yard touchdown to tie the game 7-7 leading to a back-and-forth rest of the first half.
Rogers answered with a scoring drive as Francisco hit Seldomridge for a 17-yard TD strike and 14-7 lead.
The Panthers got within 14-13 when Talley threw a 60-yard touchdown pass to Coffey, but the extra point hit off the upright and Rogers remained ahead by one.
Rogers drove into Siloam Springs territory but a bad snap on fourth down resulted in a big loss and turnover on downs for the Mounties at their own 35.
Siloam Springs took advantage, scoring in six plays, capped by an 8-yard TD run by Talley. Talley hit Coffey for the two-point conversion to go up 21-14.
Rogers came right back with a 33-yard completion from Francisco to Noah Goodshield and then Francisco hit Gavin Pitts for a 37-yard TD strike to tie the game 21-21.
Siloam Springs answered with a 12-play, 80-yard scoring drive that saw Talley run in from two yards out for a 28-21 lead with 5:06 left in the half.
Rogers tied it at 28 on a sixyard run by Marion Slater, set up by a 63-yard pass to Goodshield a few plays earlier.
Rogers ran five offensive plays in the second quarter for 140 yards.
Siloam Springs scored with 4.4 seconds before halftime when Talley hit Camden Collins for a 15-yard touchdown pass and a 35-28 lead at halftime.
The Panthers defense forced a turnover on downs on Rogers’ opening possession of the second half, and the offense moved the ball 81 yards before Rogers’ goalline stand in the third quarter.
Rogers finished the night with 550 yards of offense, including 421 passing yards from Francisco in his first varsity game as the Mounties’ starting quarterback. Francisco completed 19 of 26 passes and threw for three touchdowns while rushing for 89 yards on 16 carries and two more scores.
“I thought he played outstanding for his first start,” Loyd said of Francisco.
Goodshield caught six passes for 132 yards, while Pitts had four catches for 95 yards and a score, Seldomridge four receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown and Sheperd three receptions for 71 yards and a score.
Siloam Springs had 553 yards of offense. The Panthers had 276 rushing yards but only 74 in the second half after blowing through for 202 yards in the first half. Talley finished with 22 carries for 175 yards.
Talley completed 14 of 21 passes for 277 yards in his first varsity start as Siloam Springs quarterback. Coffey had three receptions for 98 yards. Gavin Henson caught four passes for 85 yards.
The Panthers will look to rebound this week when they travel to Pea Ridge, which lost at Shiloh Christian 47-14.
Craig said he hopes the Panthers will continue to improve as the season goes on.
“As a coach, you hope game 10 you’re not the same team you were game 1,” he said. “It’ll take some time and we’ll have to develop some toughness. Hopefully our kids will respond. They have two choices. They can either respond or quit, and hopefully they’ll respond.”