SILOAM SPRINGS -- Siloam Springs couldn't shut the door on Rogers, and it cost the Panthers in the end.
Rogers recovered two fumbles with less than three minutes remaining and the Mounties scored twice in the fourth quarter to rally for a 34-33 road victory at Panther Stadium.
Rogers 34, Siloam Springs 33
Rogers^7^7^7^13^—^34
Siloam Springs^14^13^0^6^—^33
First Quarter
Siloam — Thrailkill 7 run (Perez kick), 8:17.
Siloam — Thrailkill 10 run (Losh kick), 3:39.
Rogers — Jones 1 run (Hernandez kick), 0:55.
Second Quarter
Siloam — Gumm 35 pass from Ellis (Mancia kick), 8:48.
Siloam — Thrailkill 6 run (kick failed), 5:12.
Rogers — Loyd 1 run (Hernandez kick), 1:33.
Third Quarter
Rogers — Loyd 1 run (Hernandez kick), 3:54
Fourth Quarter
Siloam — Ellis 9 run (pass failed), 4:11.
Rogers — McWhorter 10 pass from Loyd (Hernandez kick), 3:05.
Rogers — Jones 1 run (pass failed), 1:56.
The Mounties trailed 27-7 in the second quarter and came back to cut the lead to 27-21 in the fourth quarter.
Rogers appeared all but sunk after Landon Ellis scored on a nine-yard quarterback keeper to give the Panthers a 33-21 lead with 4 minutes, 11 seconds left, but instead fortune smiled on the Mounties in the end.
Rogers scored with 3:05 left on a 10-yard pass from Hunter Loyd to Colin McWhorter to cut the lead to 33-28.
Siloam Springs mistakingly called for a fair catch on the ensuing kickoff, and two plays later the Mounties senior defensive back John Horn recovered a fumble at the 1-yard line.
A-ron Jones powered in on the next play as Rogers took the lead 34-33 with 1:56 remaining.
Siloam Springs got the ball back and drove into Rogers territory with less than a minute remaining, but Panthers junior running back Kaiden Thrailkill fumbled and Andrew McGlynn recovered for the Mounties with 43 seconds left.
Loyd was able to kneel on the ball in victory formation and Rogers escaped with the one-point win.
"These kids are resilient," said Rogers coach Mike Loyd. "They never gave up. We've got about 10 sophomores out here and five returning starters. I can't say enough about how they played and responded for four quarters. We talked to them about it at halftime. ... Our kids played hard and they deserved to win."
Siloam Springs will point to several mistakes that let Rogers back in the game after going up 27-7 in the second quarter after Thrailkill's third touchdown run, which was set up by an 80-yard punt return by Luke Gumm.
Siloam Springs got the ball back and was punting from its 8-yard line, but a Rogers rush forced Thrailkill to run with the ball and the Panthers turned it over on downs.
Rogers capitalized with a score on a 1-yard run by Loyd to pull within 27-14 at halftime.
Siloam Springs also threw an interception before halftime and turned the ball over on downs in the red zone to open the second half.
A 43-yard pass from Loyd to McWhorter set up Rogers' third score in the third quarter to make it 27-21.
Loyd finished 17 of 27 for 310 yards, including 11 catches to McWhorter for 223 yards.
Thrailkill ran 30 times for 160 yards and three scores, while Ellis completed 17 of 26 passes for 262 yards. Gumm had seven catches for 112 yards for the Panthers.
"Part of you is sick because in essence we gave it away, but part of me is incredibly proud of the effort and what these kids have done," said Siloam Springs head coach Bryan Ross. "They're out to prove that they're a lot better football team than people think they are -- a lot better than last year. I couldn't be more proud of the effort and preparation and all of that. We've just got to clean up a couple of mistakes and we win the game."
Sports on 09/02/2017