Panthers in 6A playoffs, ignoring 1-9 record

Siloam Springs may carry a 1-9 record entering the Class 6A football playoffs, but once the playoffs start every team is 0-0.

And in the Panthers’ case, the playing field levels out.

After weeks and weeks of playing schools with double and sometimes triple its enrollment in 7A/6 A-WestConference play, Siloam Springs will get to square off against another team around its same size when the Panthers play at Searcy on Friday.

“This is really why we’ve played this year is to reach this point where we can play people that are closer to our own size,” said Siloam Springs coach Bryan Ross. “Going through the hell of that conference and that schedule certainly didn’t help the win-loss record. I can’t help but believe that didn’t prepare us as well as we can be prepared for a playoff game. Certainly we’re not going to see anything in the playoffs that compares to Bentonville, Fayetteville, and Har-Ber and those schools.”

Searcy coach Tim Harper, who led his team to a 5-5 overall record and 4-3 mark in the 7A/6A-East, couldn’t agree more. He said Siloam Springs’ 1-9 record is very misleading simply because of the Panthers’ competition.

“We have the utmost respect for thePep rally Thursday at Rodeo Grounds

The Siloam Springs Football Booster Club is sponsoring a bonfire and playoff pep rally for the football team on Thursday at the Siloam Springs Rodeo Grounds.

The event will start around 6:30 p.m. and hot dogs will be available, provided by Farm Bureau.

The Siloam Springs band, cheerleaders and singers will also be in attendance.

  • From Staff ReportsSiloam Springs Panthers,” Harper said. “For them to have to play the schedule they have is brutal. We are extremely concerned about them. They are a bunch of fighters.”

Siloam Springs’ no quit attitude was evident to Harper in the Panthers’ 47-46 loss to Van Buren last week at Glenn W. Black Stadium. In that game, the Panthers had a season-high 586 yards of offense and were knocking on the door for the game-winning score when a late turnover allowed Van Buren to escape town with a win.

“Anytime you score 46 points in a game, it doesn’t matter who you’ve played,” Harper said. “They were down 27-7 and didn’t quit. That speaks highly of your team and your coaches. No doubt about it, we’re scared to death. This was theteam outside of Pine Bluff, El Dorado and Lake Hamilton that we least wanted to play. I guarantee you they have our full, undivided attention.”

Ross is hoping the Panthers’ near miss against Van Buren will provide the team with a shot of confidence.

“We certainly played well enough to win that game,” he said. “The last two weeks we’ve had ourselves in games against larger schools (Rogers and Van Buren). I just hope they realize that if we play well we’re good enough to win. Even though we haven’t done that much this year, I think the game has slowed down for them because of the quality of competition we’ve seen. Hopefully we can continue offensively playing the way we did the other night. Defensively, hopefully we can rise to the occasion and do a goodjob of bottling up their quarterback.”

The Lions’ season in their conference earned them 56 power rating points and the third seed out of the 6A-East. Searcy opened the season with an 18-0 win against Little Rock McClellan, but lost its next two at Batesville 24-21 and at Morrilton 21-17.

The Lions opened their conference season by beating Little Rock Central 19-14 and Mountain Home 44-41 before topping Marion 17-0.

Class 7A power North Little Rock beat the Lions 42-13, and Searcy lost in Week 7 to Jonesboro 35-32.

The Lions got perhaps their biggest win of the season Oct. 26 against West Memphis 23-15. The Lions lost 35-13 to Cabot last Thursday night.

“We’re kind of like any football team,” Harper said. “If you take care of the ball and tackle well you have a chance to win. Unfortunately we didn’t tackle well at the end of a couple of games and it cost us.”

The Lions are led by senior quarterback Antwan Arnold (6-0, 205), who’s accounted for more than 2,300 offensive yards.

“He’s a good hand,” Harper said of Arnold. “He’s done a fine job for us.”

Arnold averages around 100 yards passing and 130 yards rushing a game, Harper said.

“They’re a good quality team with some real athleticism,” Ross said. “They’ve got some pretty good size too. We’ll have to play well.”

NOTES: The Panthers plan to leave Siloam Springs mid-morning Friday and head straight to Searcy. The team will ride in charter buses courtesy of the Siloam Springs Football Booster Club. ... In the enrollment numbers used to determine the latest classifications, Siloam Springs had more students than Searcy. The Panthers had an average enrollment of 853.67, making them the 29th largest school. Searcy was at 851 and was the 30th.

Class 6A State Football Playoffs FRIDAY’S GAMES 8S Little Rock Fair (0-10) at 1E Greenwood (10-0) 5E Little Rock Parkview (3-7) at 4S Sheridan (4-6) 7E Mountain Home (1-9) at 2S El Dorado (7-3) 6S Siloam Springs (1-9) at 3E Searcy (5-5) 8E Little Rock Hall (0-9) at 1S Pine Bluff (9-1) 5S Benton (3-7) at 4E Russellville (6-4) 7S Texarkana (2-8) at 2E Jonesboro (7-2) 6E Marion (2-8) at 3S Lake Hamilton (6-4) * All games start at 7 p.m.

Sports, Pages 13 on 11/07/2012