SILOAM SPRINGS — Rogers Heritage senior Forrest Johnson and his War Eagles teammates gave Siloam Springs a rather rude welcoming to 7A/6A-West Conference on Friday at Glenn W. Black Stadium.
Johnson caught five passes for 232 yards and three touchdowns, and the War Eagles rolled up more than 600 yards of offense in a 70-21 win against the Class 6A Panthers.
Heritage (4-0, 1-0) had 447 yards of offense at halftime and finished with 608 total.
War Eagles junior quarterback Josh Qualls threw five first-half TDs to give Heritage a 49-14 lead, and the second half was played with the sportsmanship running clock. Qualls completed 11 of 20 passes for 327 yards on the night.
Brandon Gates, who rushed for 153 yards, scored two first-half touchdowns and another to open the second half.
Gamebreaker
ROGERS HERITAGE 70, SILOAM SPRINGS 21
Why the War Eagles won
Rogers Heritage scored on its first seven possessions and piled up more than 600 yards of offense.
Why the Panthers lost
Siloam Springs’ defense couldn’t slow down Heritage, and losing quarterback Austin Van Poucke with back spasms didn’t help the Panthers’ cause.
“We’ve been waiting for them to kind of be like a machine where we just roll and roll and roll,” said Heritage head coach Perry Escalante. “We did for about a half. We kind of had a little mental letdown, but we played pretty good for two quarters.”
For Siloam Springs (1-3, 0-1) the biggest loss of the night didn’t come on the scoreboard.
Van Poucke went down with back spasms with 6 minutes, 15 seconds left in the first quarter and the Panthers trailing 14-7.
Van Poucke was rolling right when he collapsed untouched to the ground. He did not return and left the stadium at halftime.
Van Poucke and senior running back Scout Alexander did not start for Siloam Springs on the opening offensive possession of the ballgame. Sophomore quarterback Chris Lampton and Mitchel Dolezal got the call, and Dolezal lost a fumble on the second play, which Heritage recovered at the 20.
Three plays later, Qualls found Jeremy Spickes for a 2-yard TD pass and a 7-0 lead.
Siloam Springs answered right back. Alexander weaved through traffic and broke free for an 80-yard touchdown run to tie the game with 9:29 left in the first.
However, Heritage pulled back ahead when Qualls hit Carlos Hernandez for a 43-yard strike. The lead reached 35-7 in the second quarter after Johnson hauled in touchdown passes of 61 and 54 yards. Gates also rushed for a score in that stretch.
7A/6A-West Conference
Rogers Heritage 28 21 14 7 — 70
Siloam Springs 7 7 0 7 — 21
First Quarter
Heri — Jeremy Spickes 2 pass from Josh Qualls (Cesar Morales kick), 9:44
Silo — Scout Alexander 80 run (Alejandro Dominguez kick), 9:29
Heri — Carlos Hernandez 43 pass from Qualls (Morales kick), 8:29
Heri — Forrest Johnson 61 pass from Qualls (Morales kick), 5:32
Heri — Brandon Gates 2 run (Morales kick), 2:28
Second Quarter
Heri — Johnson 54 pass from Qualls (Morales kick), 11:49
Silo — Alexander 65 run (Dominguez kick), 11:38
Heri — Johnson 67 pass from Qualls (Morales kick), 10:34
Heri — Gates 42 run (Morales kick), 7:09
Third Quarter
Heri — Gates 3 run (Morales kick), 6:51
Heri — Joey Saucier 40 run (Morales kick), 1:49
Fourth Quarter
Silo — Chris Lampton 4 run (Dominguez kick), 8:28
Heri — Eric McLeod 34 run (Morales kick), 7:49
“We’re pretty young in the back end, and I think we kind of had the deer in the headlight look back there,” said Siloam Springs coach Bryan Ross. “They just beat us. We couldn’t do a thing about it.”
Alexander broke another long touchdown run of 65 yards to make it 35-14. Alexander finished with 184 rushing yards on 18 carries.
However, Heritage answered back with two more scores before half. Johnson caught a 67-yard pass and Gates had a 42-yard run for a score. Johnson said last year’s 45-35 loss to Siloam Springs was motivation this time around and the fact that Friday was homecoming.
“They picked us for homecoming because they thought they could beat us,” Johnson said. “All week that motivated us. We’re the homecoming opponent and we’ve got to show them how good we are and how good we’re going to play. We were kind of angry about that. We owed them something. We did our thing.”