Siloam Springs more than held its own against Fort Smith Southside on Tuesday night.
The Panthers' offense scored a touchdown with 21 seconds remaining in the varsity portion of a two-quarter scrimmage, and that score proved to be the winning margin in a 10-7 victory over the Class 7A Rebels at Panther Stadium.
"I was pleased in that we competed and looked like we knew what we were doing," said Siloam Springs head coach Bryan Ross. "It looked like the beginnings of a good football team. Obviously we've got a long, long way to go, but I thought we certainly held our own and looked like we had some potential. Like I told the kids, it's a start."
The two teams began Tuesday's scrimmage with a pair of 15-minute running clock periods for the team's varsity and junior varsity offenses and defenses running plays from the 35-yard line. After a short break, the varsity teams played a two-quarter scrimmage with game conditions. A two-quarter junior varsity scrimmage was held at the end with a running clock. All of the kicking games, except for kickoffs, were dead.
"It was a good scrimmage for both of us," said Southside head coach Jeff Williams.
In the varsity scrimmage, Southside took a 7-3 lead on an eight-yard run by Parker Dixon with 3:57 remaining, finally cashing in on a drive after losing two turnovers to the Panthers earlier in the game.
The Panthers took over at their own 29-yard line and moved the chains immediately after a 10-yard run by senior running back Cody Washington.
Senior quarterback Jordan Norberg hit sophomore Marquan Sorrells for 10 yards to move the ball to midfield. Three plays later, Norberg found junior receiver Cade Miller down the far sideline for a 31-yard gain to the 13-yard line.
A pair of Southside penalties, including a roughing the passer on third-and-one, moved the ball to the 2-yard line, and junior Luke Lampton ran in for a touchdown with 21 seconds left.
"It was nice to see that when we had to (score) we did," Ross said.
Siloam Springs had scoring opportunities on three of its four offensive possessions.
On their first possession, the Panthers moved the ball down to the 21-yard line before settling for a 47-yard field goal by Gus Wright.
After Lampton recovered a fumble for the Panthers on defense, Siloam Springs moved the ball to the 20, but this time Wright's 37-yard field goal missed wide right.
Miller intercepted a pass for Siloam Springs' defense on Southside's next possession, taking the ball away from the receiver.
"Cade stepped up and showed what he's capable of doing," Ross said. "Cade's a really quiet kid. Sometimes you have to prod him a little bit. I think he's got a chance to really do some good things in the future. He's working hard. Now he's just raised our expectations."
Unfortunately for the Panthers, they weren't able to cash in any points off their two turnovers.
"The defense got us a couple of turnovers, and we didn't get any points out of those," Ross said. "We had the ball there in the red zone twice and only got a field goal out of it. We've got to finish our chances better."
Williams, who is in his 11th season as head coach at Southside and led the Rebels to a share of the 7A-West crown last year, came away impressed with the Panthers.
"I think they're going to have a very good football team," Williams said. "Coach Ross has done a very good job with them. You can see they're building a program and getting them going where they need to go. They've got some good players, got a chance to be pretty good defensively. They can do a lot of good things. ... I think they've got a chance to have a good year."
Siloam Springs finished with 122 yards of offense, but most of it was through the air. The Panthers only rushed for 18 yards on 16 carries as a team.
Norberg completed 8 of 13 passes for 104 yards with completions to seven different receivers.
The Panthers' defense held Southside to 126 yards of offense, 51 yards rushing on 15 carries and 75 yards passing.
Southside quarterback Cooper Johnson completed 8 of 13 passes for 75 yards and one interception. Southside running back Kobe Rogers had seven carries for 30 yards, while Dixon had five carries for 24 yards.
15-minute periods
In the 15-minute periods held at the beginning of the scrimmage, the Panthers finished with 103 yards of offense in 21 plays.
Norberg completed 3 of 6 passes for 31 yards and had one rush for 21 yards. Lampton went 3 of 5 passing for 25 yards and had two rushes for 17 yards.
The team rushed eight times for 47 yards. Six different receivers each caught one pass.
Defensively, the Panthers allowed only 10 rushing yards on seven carries. Southside completed 8 of 11 passes for 99 yards.
While the varsity teams were playing on one side of the field, the junior varsity squads worked on the other side of the field.
JV scrimmage
Southside outscored the Panthers 9-0 in the junior varsity portion of the scrimmage.
Lampton was flagged for intentional grounding in the end zone, which resulted in a safety for the Rebels.
Southside quarterback Mac Moody rushed for a touchdown in the final portion.
Third string quarterback Nick Herring completed his only two passes for 33 yards in the fourth quarter, a 13-yard pass to Nolan Wallis and a 20-yard strike to Fabian Gonzales on the last play of the night.
Up next
The Panthers host Rogers on Friday at Panther Stadium in both team's season-opener. The Rebels play Alma on Tuesday in the Hooten's Kickoff Classic at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
Sports on 08/30/2015