Bombers pull away in second half
■ Siloam Springs drops to 0-9 after 44-17 loss at Mountain Home.
MOUNTAIN HOME — Siloam Springs played one of its best games of the year Friday night, leading Mountain Home for most of the first half and trailing the Bombers 23-17 going into the fourth quarter.
But as the game went on, the Panthers had a tough time slowing down Mountain Home senior Brady Barnett, who finished with 141 rushing yards and five touchdowns as the Bombers pulled away for a 44-17 victory in a battle of winless teams at Bomber Stadium.
“Too many mistakes in the second half cost us,” said Siloam Springs coach Brandon Craig. “We do some things that I’m really surprised when we do them, but we’re just in the process of learning how to be a football team. We’ve got so many young guys playing. I know I’ve said it all season. They’ve got to go through this process. They’ve got to learn it. It stinks for the seniors. We’ve got some really good kids that I was hoping we could get a win for tonight. We didn’t play well in the fourth quarter.”
Siloam Springs scored on its opening drive of the game, spurred on by a 49-yard pass from Jackson Still to Jonathon Graves to get the ball in Bomber territory. Still then hit Noah Shipp for nine yards and then threw a little shovel pass to Gio Flores, who ran around the right side for a 13-yard touchdown as Siloam Springs went up 7-0 with 11 minutes, 10 seconds left in the first quarter.
“They were giving us coverage that we knew we were going to be able to take advantage of if they gave it to us. They did,” Craig said. “Our quarterback made some plays. Our receivers made some plays. I was proud of them. They adjusted. They took their best kid (Barnett) and put him on our best kid (Graves) and kind of shut us down a little bit, but we still made some plays. I was glad to see some growth. We’ve just got to continue for our young guys to keep working.”
The Bombers (1-7, 1-5) answered with a drive into Siloam Springs territory but turned it over on downs. The Siloam Springs offense though had to punt and gave it back to
Mountain Home, which went on a 70-yard drive and scored on a fiveyard run from Barnett, a former quarterback, who took the direct snap in the Wildcat formation and scored. Mountain Home’s extra point was blocked by Dallion Miller and Siloam Springs maintained a 7-6 lead with 1:45 left in the first quarter.
The Panthers (0-9, 0-7) added to their lead in the second quarter. Jed Derwin bust through the line and ran for a 58-yard run into Mountain Home territory to the 13.
Still threw to Shipp for 10 yards and ran for four yards and then a one-yard touchdown with five minutes left in the half to give Siloam Springs a 14-6 lead.
The Bombers answered with a scoring drive that resulted in a 30-yard field goal with 3:08 left in the half.
The Panthers were hoping to keep the ball the rest of the first half, but an interception by Tony Fox gave Mountain Home the ball at the 24-yard line.
The Bombers converted for a touchdown when Barnett scored with three seconds left to give Mountain Home a 16-14 lead at halftime.
The Bombers received the ball to start the second half and immediately put the ball in the hands of their playmaker Barnett. He rushed for six yards and Jacob Chenoweth ran for 18 yards. Barnett then broke free for a 46-yard touchdown with 10:35 left in the third quarter to put the Bombers up 23-14.
“He’s got some juice. He’s got some run in him,” Mountain Home coach Steve Ary said. “We haven’t really got to use him a whole lot this year. We haven’t seen him go. He’s been bottled up. I think he’s one guy that people game plan around.”
Siloam Springs cut into the Mountain Home lead at the end of the third quarter when Ronald Mancia kicked a 33-yard field goal with 1:17 left to pull Siloam Springs within 23-17.
The fourth quarter, though, proved to be a nightmare for Siloam Springs.
Chenoweth scored on a two-yard touchdown run with 10:26 left to give the Bombers a 30-17 lead. Chenoweth had also hauled in passes of 26 and 34 yards earlier on the drive to the put the Bombers in scoring position.
Another Siloam Springs interception, this time by Dillon Drewry who returned it to the 8, led to another Mountain Home touchdown, a two-yard run by Barnett and a 37-17 lead with 7:30 left.
Barnett broke loose for his fifth touchdown run , a 44-yard scamper to cap his big night.
“He’s a heck of an athlete,” Craig said of Barnett. “He’s definitely one of those kids you look at in pregame and you say ‘That kid’s a football player.’ We watched him on film. We knew he’s the guy they wanted to touch the football the most. When you chart everything as a coach you know, hey, that’s their guy. number eight. When he touches the ball there’s always a chance he could make a play.”
The Bombers finished with 423 yards of offense, with regular quarterback Cade Yates throwing for 196 yards. Jacob Chenoweth had 69 rushing yards and 83 receiving yards on four catches.
The Bombers are still in the hunt for a playoff spot with games at Van Buren (17, 1-5) on Friday, Oct. 28 and home against Greenbrier (2-6, 1-5) on Nov. 4.
Jed Derwin rushed for 86 yards on 12 carries to lead Siloam Springs, which finished with 263 yards of offense. Jackson Still completed 14 of 22 passes for 157 yards.
Mikey McKinley had six solo tackles and five assisted tackles for Siloam Springs, while Miller finished with six solo tackles and one assisted tackle. George LeRoy had four solo tackles and four assisted tackles and one pass breakup, while Stone Stephens had three solo tackles and four assisted and Daxton Moody three solo tackles and three assisted.
The Panthers are off this week with their bye week. Siloam Springs is officially out of the running to make the playoffs and will wrap up the season Nov. 4 at home against Van Buren.
“It’s a little different at this point in the season because you know we’re at the end of it,” Craig said. “We’re going to get out there next week and have some fun practices and get ready for Van Buren and go and compete.”