LITTLE ROCK -- Siloam Springs clinched its first football playoff appearance since 2014 with a 49-8 win against Little Rock Hall on Friday at Scott Field.
Now the Panthers are looking for more.
Siloam Springs 49, LR Hall 8
Siloam Springs 21 21 7 0 — 49
LR Hall 0 0 8 0 — 8
First Quarter
Siloam — Thrailkill 4 run (Losh kick), 10:48
Siloam — Thrailkill 6 run (Losh kick), 4:32
Siloam — Pippin 10 pass from Ellis (Losh kick), 0:59.
Second Quarter
Siloam — Agbehi 39 pass from Ellis (Losh kick), 11:43
Siloam — Chandler 15 interception return (Losh kick), 10:36.
Siloam — Thrailkill 4 run (Losh kick), 4:43.
Third Quarter
Siloam — Ca. Collins 17 fumble return (Losh kick), 10:30.
Hall — Coulter 39 run (Dotson pass from Coulter), 1:11.
Kaiden Thrailkill rushed for 100 yards and three touchdowns, Landon Ellis threw for 175 yards and two scores and the Panthers scored on defense and on special teams.
"What I told our kids this week is we need to play 48 minutes of football, get off the bus, play fast, play hard, try to dominate the line of scrimmage," said Siloam Springs first-year coach Brandon Craig. "I felt like we did all of those things. Very proud of our kids."
Siloam Springs (5-4, 3-3 6A-West) now has a chance to clinch a first-round playoff game with a win at home next week against Russellville on senior night.
"This gives us a playoff berth, gives us an opportunity to play for something next week that's very special, and that's getting a home playoff game," Craig said. "I know Russellville's a very talented team, and we're going to have to do everything we can to try to compete with them on the football field."
The Panthers finished with 375 yards of offense, 200 on the ground and 175 in the air, with 336 of those yards coming in the first half. The second half was played with a running clock.
Thrailkill scored two touchdowns in the first quarter and Ellis threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Spenser Pippin.
Ellis connected with Primo Agbehi for a 39-yard score to start the second quarter for a 28-0 lead.
Later in the second, Hall was lined up to punt but a bad snap forced a pass play and Chase Chandler intercepted it at the 15 and returned it for a score and 35-0 lead.
Thrailkill added his third TD of the half for a 42-0 lead, and sophomore Camden Collins returned a fumble for a touchdown in the third quarter.
"Big emphasis this week was to try and score on defense," Craig said. "We accomplished that. Also got the score on special teams [Chandler's interception] which we hadn't done all year. It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to gel together. Obviously, we're going to have to play at an even higher level next week."
Hall (1-8, 0-6) got on the scoreboard with 1:11 left in the third when Braylon Coulter got loose for a 39-yard touchdown. Coulter finished with 115 rushing yards on 18 carries. Hall had 156 yards of total offense.
Ellis finished 11 of 13 passing for 175 yards in his best night of the year coming off his second torn ACL.
"It's an amazing feeling," Ellis said. "It's something that we've wanted to do. We wanted to flip this program around. Bringing Coach Craig in, first season here, we didn't want to rebuild. We wanted to get this playoff spot and I'm so happy that we got it.
"We're hungry. We want more. We want to try and clinch a home playoff game."
Sports on 10/27/2018