HOT SPRINGS -- Still looking for its first win, Hot Springs Lakeside fell to Magnolia 55-28 on Friday night at Lakeside Stadium.
Fresh off a 42-14 road loss to Camden Fairview last week, the Rams (0-4, 0-2 5A-South) trailed the Panthers (5-0, 2-0 5A-South) 28-14 to start the second half. After Lakeside suffered a turnover on downs, Magnolia senior quarterback Dalen Blanchard found senior Chuck Dennis for a 48-yard touchdown to go up 35-14 just over two minutes into the half.
Lakeside junior quarterback Jacob Hermosillo connected junior receiver Skylar Purifoy for a 21-yard touchdown pass to the end zone to trail 35-21 after Caleb Villines' kick.
Blanchard shot with a touchdown off the keeper from a yard out before Dennis picked off the interception off a tipped pass at midfield and returned it for score to make it 48-21 heading to the fourth quarter.
Magnolia senior running back Garrion Curry set the final on a short rush into the end zone with 4:49 to go.
"They played hard from the very beginning to the end and we're still trying to figure some things out," Lakeside Coach Jared McBride said. "But I'm proud of our kids for playing hard and we've just got to give [Magnolia] credit. They're a really good football team. We tried to make some adjustments to take advantage of some things in the second half. We turned the ball over too many times and gave up a couple touchdowns."
Magnolia Coach Mark King said he was surprised at how well his team did against Lakeside's passing game.
"We knew they could throw the football," he said. "I knew they were going to be good at throwing it with both quarterbacks -- especially [Hermosillo]. He can make a lot of things happen with his legs and, you know, we saw that on film and he's accurate when he's running and throwing the football.
"We knew their passing game would give us a little bit of a problem, but it's good for us to see that."
The Panthers struck first on a six-play drive to open the game as Curry scored from 1 yard out following a 20-yard rush by senior Jacob Hebert. They made it 14-0 when senior Jace Carter picked off a pass by Lakeside senior quarterback Towle Douglas.
After an 11-play drive, Hermosillo found Ben Vincent for a 14-yard touchdown to make it 14-7.
Striking back 26 seconds later, Curry took a pitch from Blanchard and ran 65 yards for a touchdown to make it 21-7 lead heading into the second quarter.
"You know, at defense we gave up a lot of yards but not a lot of points," King said. "Offensively we just do what we do and if we don't turn the ball over, we're a hard team to stop with our triple threat rushing attack. "
Lakeside answered back quickly with Hermosillo hitting junior Landen Matthews for a 30-yard score.
Hermosillo finished 26-of-47 passing for 360 yards. Purifoy had 10 catches for 110 yards and Vincent 4 catches for 150 yards. Blanchard was 3 of 3 for 90 yards and added85 yards rushing. Curry racked up 220 yards on the ground.