Wednesday, November 7, 2012
I’d like to be able to use this
week’s column to reflect back
on the barn-burner of a football game held last week at Glenn W. Black Stadium between Siloam Springs and Van Buren.
But for the first time in three seasons, I was not at the Panther football game last Friday night, and it wasn’t by choice.
I learned on Wednesday that I had tested positive for both the flu and strep and was basically out of commission the rest of the week.
And let me say here first, get your flu shot! The last few days have been brutal - fever, body aches, etc. Hopefully I’m starting to turn the corner and get better.
On to the game that I didn’t see, however I did get to catch the radio broadcast.
First things first. What. A. Game. Wow. There have been some exciting ones over the last three years for the Panthers, and that one has to rank among the best. Down 27-7, the Panthers scored the last 17 points of the first half to close within 27-24.
Siloam Springs would eventually take a 46-40 lead in the fourth quarter before Van Buren scored to make it 47-46. And then of course, the Panthers put themselves in a position to win the game and the football gods had other plans.
The Panthers had a seasonhigh 586 yards of offense in the loss and had two players - Scout Alexander and Austin Van Poucke - rush for more than 100 yards apiece. Alexander also caught 10 passes for 153 yards - a seasonhigh for any player this season - and just had a monster game all around.
Van Poucke more than made up for two early pick sixes by completing 23 of 39 passes for 348 yards and two touchdowns. That’s a season-high for passing yards for him.
Those are just two performances in what sounded like an outstanding overall job from the entire team. I just wish I could have been there to see it.
Now it’s on to the playoffs for the Panthers, who travel to Searcy on Friday to face the Lions, who secured the third seed out of the 6A-East. Searcy finished 5-5 overall and 4-3 in the 7A/6A-East, which included some outstanding football teams like North Little Rock, Jonesboro, West Memphis, Cabot and Little Rock Central.
Siloam Springs is the sixth seed out of the 6A-South.
The start of the playoffs mean every team is 0-0. This is certainly a winnable game for Siloam Springs, just like last week was. The Panthers can’t let last week’s heartbreaking loss to Van Buren get them beat twice. Use it, learn from it, and be a better team because of it. Opportunity knocks in central Arkansas on Friday. Let’s see if the Panthers choose to answer it.
Sports, Pages 13 on 11/07/2012