BENTON -- After watching Siloam Springs cut a 28-point deficit in half in less than three minutes in the second quarter, Benton responded the way coach Brad Harris wanted Friday night.
Zak Wallace rushed for three first-half touchdowns, including two to close the second quarter, and Benton scored 27 unanswered points in a 55-14 mercy rule victory over Siloam Springs at the Benton Athletic Complex.
Benton 55, Siloam Springs 14
Siloam Springs 0 14 0 0 — 14
Benton 28 20 7 0 — 55
First Quarter
Benton — Wallace 80 run (Vargas kick), 8:49.
Benton — Body 11 pass from Morrow (Vargas kick), 6:00.
Benton — Wells 24 pass from Morrow (Vargas kick), 3:22.
Benton — Allison 22 pass from Morrow (Vargas kick), 1:19.
Second Quarter
Siloam — Thrailkill 11 pass from Ellis (Losh kick), 10:12.
Siloam — Ellis 9 run (Losh kick), 7:17.
Benton — Wallace 29 run (Vargas kick), 6:06.
Benton — Wallace 58 run (Vargas kick), 5:16.
Benton — Slaughter 19 pass from Brown (run failed), 0:46.
Third Quarter
Benton — Body 30 pass from Brown (Vargas kick), 9:36.
Benton (4-1, 2-0 6A-West) led 28-0 after the first quarter, which featured an 80-yard touchdown run by Wallace and quarterback Colen Morrow throwing three touchdown passes.
Siloam Springs (3-2, 1-1) put together an 89-yard touchdown drive to make it 28-7 early in the second quarter when Kaiden Thrailkill scored on an 11-yard pass from Landon Ellis. Benton then turned it over on a bad snap and Siloam Springs took advantage with another score to cut it to 28-14 on a 9-yard Ellis touchdown run.
Benton answered in a big way. Wallace had touchdown runs of 29 and 58 yards. Then sophomore quarterback Garrett Brown, who entered the game after Morrow went out with a foot injury, threw a 19-yard touchdown pass with 46 seconds left in the half as Benton re-established control with a 48-14 lead at halftime.
"I think we got a little relaxed during that time," Harris said. "We got up 28 to nothing, and I think defensively we took a couple of plays off. To (Siloam Springs') credit they hit us for a couple of plays. That first series they got it to 28-7 and then we snap the ball over our head and give them a short field and they take advantage of that and most good teams are going to execute like that. Then we had to respond. We were able to respond offensively right before half and score touchdowns."
Brown threw another touchdown pass in the third quarter to set the final score and inflict the running clock sportsmanship rule.
Wallace finished with eight carries for 190 yards and three touchdowns, all in the first half. Benton finished with 543 yards of offense, including 339 in the air.
Morrow completed 9 of 13 passes for 120 yards, while Brown hit his first 11 passes and finished 14 of 18 for 219 yards.
Siloam Springs finished with 276 yards of offense. Ellis completed 20 of 37 passes for 209 yards, including eight catches to Gage Weaver for 102 yards. Thrailkill rushed 17 times for 60 yards.
"We had opportunities that we didn't capitalize on," said Siloam Springs coach Brandon Craig. "We had a ton of mistakes that were self inflicted, whether it was reciting the play or some type of coverage on our own, or missing tackles or jumping offsides or putting the ball on the ground or throwing it to the other team. We had a ton of self-inflicted wounds. That helped them. They're a very talented football team, but that helped them as well. They did some really nice things on offense I'll give them credit for and, you know, they beat our rears."
Sports on 09/29/2018