By Graham Thomas
Staff Writer n [email protected]
The Siloam Springs freshman football team earned its first win of the season Thursday with a 28-14 win against Rogers at Panther Stadium.
The Panthers (1-1) scored on their opening possession and kept the offense rolling througout the night in beating the Mounties.
"Lot of kids played really well," said head coach Jonathan Johnson. "Christian Ledeker went out and made a couple of great plays. Offensive line had a few mistakes here and there but really pounded it in there, got physical and leaned on them all night. Defensively, the kids made a lot of adjustments. We saw a lot of things from them that we haven't seen last week. I can't say enough good things. We threw a lot of different things at them to make adjustments tonight, and they really answered really well."
Siloam Springs scored on its opening possession, capped by a 14-yard touchdown run by Ty Lewis. The Mounties answered with a score and the game was tied 7-7 at halftime.
The Panthers took a 14-7 lead with 2:12 left in the third quarter when Hunter Tally threw over the top of the Mounties' defense to Christian Ledeker for an 83-yard touchdown pass.
The Panthers recovered a Rogers fumble on their next possession and Tally found Ledeker again for a 20-yard touchdown pass and a 21-7 lead with 7:52 remaining in the game.
After Rogers cut the lead to 21-14, Tally ran for a 26-yard touchdown with 3:17 remaining to ice the victory.
Tally finished 4 of 7 for 123 yards, while Ledeker had five tackels on defense and Keegan Felser had an interception. Octavio Ballesteros had two touchbacks on kickoffs, and Alex Cortez was 4 of 4 on point-after-touchdowns.
Eighth-grade
The eighth-graders also picked up their first win of the season over Rogers Elmwood 30-12.
Hunter Jenkins had a 37-yard touchdown run in the first quarter followed by a two-point conversion run from Andrew Pilcher.
Marcus Molina ran for 39 yards in the second quarter and Jenkins ran in the conversion. Pilcher had a 15-yard touchdown run later in the second and Ryder Winfrey added the two-point try.
Pilcher threw a 47-yard TD pass to Stone Stephens in the third quarter for Siloam Springs' final score.
Pilcher competed 3 of 6 passes for 77 yards and rushed eight times for 86 yards. Molina added 54 yards rushing, while Jenkins had 51 yards. Stephens caught two passes for 72 yards.
Jenkins led with five tackles, while Molina had an interception and Gabe Cruz broke up two passes.
Seventh-grade
After their scheduled season opener was rained out last week, the seventh-grade team opened its season Thursday with a 32-6 win against Elmwood.
Jed Derwin rushed four times for 125 yards and two touchdowns, while quarterback Logan Keaton had three carries for 64 yards and a score. Keaton also completed 3 of 4 passes for 31 yards and a TD. Anthony Sandoval caught three passes for 31 yards and a score.
Hever Godinez rushed twice for 80 yards and a score and led team with 4 1/2 tackles. Devlin Husong rushed four times for 38 yards.
Mason Simmons had three tackles, including two for loss.
Up next
All three teams play this Thursday in Fayetteville. The seventh-and-eighth grade teams play Fayetteville Ramay, while the freshmen play Fayetteville Purple.
Sports on 09/09/2018