Warriors, White smash Panthers
■ The Panthers travel to Mountain Home this week in a matchup of winless teams.
Little Rock Christian was nearly flawless in the first half Friday.
The Warriors scored touchdowns on their first six offensive possessions — seven of eight overall in the first half — and also returned an interception for another score to build a 55-0 halftime lead before finishing off a 62-7 victory over Siloam Springs at Panther Stadium.
“We really wanted to challenge our players to come out fast and everybody do their job,” Little Rock Christian Coach Eric Cohu said. “I was really excited to have all three facets of the game — offense, defense and special teams — really locked in, playing hard and doing their job.”
Walker White, a 6-4, 220-pound junior Division I quarterback prospect, threw two touchdowns in the first half and ran for another. He completed 11 of 14 passes for 245 yards and rushed for 67 yards on 4 carries.
“[White] was great tonight,” Siloam Springs Coach Brandon Craig said. “We had a lot of mismatches. Their receivers are 6-4, 6-5, 6-1, 6-2 and we were obviously not that tall, so we had some mismatches on the field and some easy throws for him. He’s a good quarterback. He does a good job. He runs the ball great.”
White hit Jackson Kircher for 40 yards on the game’s first offensive play and then passed to tight end Ethan Ross for 11 and Cade Bowman for 10 to set up a 19-yard touchdown run by Ronny Anokye with 10:46 left in the first quarter.
White ran for a short touchdown run and then hit Tate Collins for a 26-yard pass to put the Warriors (5-2, 3-2 6A-West) up 21-0. Anokye’s 4-yard touchdown run made it 28-0 at the end of the first quarter.
“Walker did a good job of hitting some big throws early,” Cohu said. “Our defense did outstanding in the first half. I felt like our guys did a good job coming out of the gate.”
Holt Chappell ran for a 20-yard score to open the second quarter, and Ben Ridings returned an interception for a touchdown. White threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Cooper Longworth, and Anokye had his third TD run for the Warriors’ 55-0 lead.
Siloam Springs (0-8, 0-6) got a 16-yard run by Silas Tugwell in the third quarter. The score was set up by a 22-yard pass to Quinten Motsinger and a 19-yard run by Tugwell earlier in the drive.
The Warriors added a score in the fourth quarter with a touchdown run by Carson Crum.
The Warriors finished with 256 passing yards and 227 rushing yards for a total of 483 yards.
Anokye had 10 carries for 81 yards to go with his three touchdowns.
Collins led all Warriors receivers with three catches for 121 yards.
Siloam Springs was held to 161 yards of offense.
“Right now we’re in a place where we’ve got a bunch of young sophomores playing, and you know they’re not supposed to be playing,” Craig said. “It’s not really fair to them, but they’re having to play. When you play sophomores it usually doesn’t turn out well.”
Still completed 5 of 16 passes for 55 yards with two interceptions.
Motsinger led Siloam Springs receivers with three catches for 40 yards, giving him seven catches for 129 yards over the last two games.
Jed Derwin led the Panthers’ rushing attack with 13 carries for 41 yards.
“Jed’s a football player,” Craig said. “He’s a kid that understands the game. He knows how to play the game. He’s built well. He’s strong and, you know, he continues to fight.”
Now Siloam Springs will make the trek over Hwy 412 to play at Mountain
Home (0-7, 0-5), which is also winless on the season. The Bombers did not play last week because of a bye week.
It’s Siloam Springs’ second straight trip to Mountain Home after falling to the Bombers 42-21 at Bomber Stadium last year.
“Our focus now is Mountain Home and going and trying to get a win on the road,” Craig said. “We know it’s a very tough environment to win in, and we’re going to have to be gritty. We’re going to have to be tough. We’re going to have to play with all the toughness in the world to go get a win.”