Defense was ahead of the offense for most of the Siloam Springs football team's spring game.
The Panthers' defense, wearing Maroon jerseys, picked up points on four turnovers and several defensive stops and defeated the White team offense 39-36 on Tuesday at Panther Stadium.
"I thought there was a lot of good effort," first-year coach Brandon Craig said after the game. "There's a lot of positives out there."
The Panthers were split into two units -- the Maroon team (defense) and White team (offense) with several players switching jerseys after every quarter.
Offense was able to earn points in the conventional manner with touchdowns, field goals and extra points. The defense, however, was rewarded for getting stops (2 points), fourth-down stops (4 points) and turnovers (3 points) and defensive touchdowns (6 points).
"Right now we're split up into an offense and a defense, so we have guys that are playing just offense and guys that are playing just defense," Craig said. "We have a few swing guys. With our depth right now, that makes it pretty tough. Plus you've got a lot of ones-on-ones action, which favors the defense a lot."
Maroon took a 9-0 lead after the first quarter with four defensive stops, including one with an interception by Chase Chandler.
Defensive linemen Mariano Dominguez, Colby Fesler and Levi Masters all had touch sacks of senior quarterback L.T. Ellis in the period as well.
"I thought our defense got off some blocks," Craig said. "They were really good in the first half. Offensively we struggled a little bit picking up some blitzes."
Junior Taylor Pool took over at quarterback in the second quarter and gave the White team a little spark.
Pool had a 40-yard run on a quarterback keeper and then got the White team on the board with a 24-yard touchdown run to make the score 9-7.
On the very next play, however, Pool was intercepted by Kaiden Thrailkill as Maroon pulled back ahead 12-7.
Maroon went ahead 14-7 with another defensive stop, and Fesler recovered a fumble for a 17-7 lead. Right before halftime, Armando Munoz intercepted a Pool pass and returned it for a touchdown and a 26-7 lead.
White went back on the attack to start the second half with Ellis hitting a 39-yard pass to Gage Weaver into Maroon territory. But the drive stalled and Chandler picked up a sack on fourth down to end the drive and put Maroon up 30-7.
White got back within 30-15 after Ellis completed three straight passes, including a pass of 39 yards to Weaver and an 11-yard TD pass to Tate Criner. Ellis then hit Hunter Dorsey for the two-point conversion to make it 30-15.
Just as quickly though, Angel Noyola intercepted a Colin Evers pass for another pick six to put Maroon up 39-15 going into the fourth quarter.
The White team made a push in the fourth quarter with mostly sophomores in the game.
Evers, a sophomore, threw a 49-yard touchdown to sophomore Elijah Coffey to make it 39-22, and sophomore Camden Collins ripped off a 72-yard touchdown run to make it 39-28.
Senior Gustavo Fuentes also had a late 60-yard touchdown run and Collins ran in the two-point conversion for a 39-36 score.
Overall, the White team got 61 offensive plays in for a total of 440 yards.
White rushed 32 times for 193 yards, while it completed 17 of 29 passes for 247 yards with four interceptions.
"We struggled a little bit with turnovers, which is something we'll have to clean up," said Craig, who is also offensive coordinator. "I think it's one of those things where your defense is always going to be a little ahead of your offense in the spring. We're just trying to get a little bit better each day. We're throwing a lot at them, so there's a lot going on in their brains. We've just got to keep getting better."
Ellis, who started eight games at quarterback last year before tearing his ACL at the end of the season, completed 13 of 16 passes for 177 yards and one interception. Pool struggled throwing the ball, going 1 of 8 for nine yards with one pick, but he picked up 68 yards rushing on three carries.
Collins had seven rushes for 64 yards, while Fuentes had 54 yards on five carries. Thrailkill, an all-state running back in 6A as a junior, struggled to get free against the Panthers' No. 1 defense, carrying four times for minus four yards.
Coffey led all receivers with five catches for 89 yards, while Weaver had three catches for 83 yards.
Sports on 05/20/2018