Panthers to finish season at Russellville

The Siloam Springs football team will wrap up its 2017 season Friday with a 6A-West Conference game at Russellville.

Whether they win or lose against the Cyclones on Friday, the Panthers are done for the year as they are locked into a seventh-place finish in the 6A-West Conference.

However, head coach Bryan Ross said Monday that the team is preparing for this game just like any other game and the Panthers (2-7, 1-5) would like to wrap up their season on a positive note with a victory.

"Anytime you step out there, if you're a competitor and you have a little character, you want to go out and play well and finish what you started," Ross said. "It'd be a good boost for us going into the offseason if we could play well and find a way to win. Obviously, that's what we're going to try and do.

"Too many things in life, it's easy to quit and it's easy to back away from. Hopefully, our kids understand that the really important things in life you have to follow through on. Hopefully, we'll do that. We'll prepare the same way. You know with our situation on offense with injuries, we'll have to kind of tweak some things. As far as the preparation, it won't be any different. We'll prepare like we always do and try to go win the game."

The Panthers' postseason fate was sealed with a 37-0 loss to Texarkana at Panther Stadium last week. Siloam Springs was without several key players, including junior quarterback Landon Ellis, who is out for the rest of the season with a partial tear of his ACL. Ellis has completed 97 of 199 passes for 1,563 yards and 11 touchdowns this season.

It's an injury to the same knee Ellis hurt as a freshman that caused him to miss that season. The partial tear this time though means he won't require surgery and should be able to come back for baseball in the spring and football next season. Ellis hurt the knee at El Dorado on Oct. 20, but it wasn't until an MRI result on Friday afternoon revealed a possible tear that he was shut down for the year.

Sophomore Taylor Pool started at quarterback in Ellis' absence against Texarkana and struggled with four interceptions.

"It was just hard the other night because Taylor hadn't gotten many reps," Ross said. "Then you throw him out there, it's not fair to him. Not fair to anybody, but sometimes that's the way it goes."

The Panthers only had 89 yards of offense in the loss. Fifty of those yards came on the ground by junior running back Kaiden Thrailkill, who is closing in on 1,000 yards of total offense for the season. Though nine games, Thrailkill has rushed for 759 yards on 171 carries and eight touchdowns. He's also caught 16 passes for 220 yards and three touchdowns.

The Cyclones, meanwhile, have a lot at stake Friday night in their final regular season home game. Russellville is in a four-way tie for third place in the conference with Benton, Lake Hamilton and Texarkana.

The Cyclones were defeated by El Dorado last week 35-7. They defeated Lake Hamilton 40-35, Sheridan 28-14 and Texarkana 23-20 for their three conference wins.

Sports on 11/01/2017