Up 21-0 late in the third quarter, the Benton Panthers held on to a 21-14 win over the Central Tigers Tuesday in a benefit at Panthers Stadium in the Benton Athletic Complex.
“Overall it was a good night,” Benton Coach Brad Harris said. “Central is a good opponent and we got to see an athletic team. I thought our first bunch did really well on defense, and offensively we have to get to where were more consistent in blocking schemes. We dropped a few balls. We had some mental penalties, but we’ll get all that cleaned up before Week 1, hopefully, and get a lot smoother.”
It was a defensive game at the start as the Panthers held the Tigers to minus-1 yard in the first quarter and senior safety Junior Hendrix picked off a pass with a 25-yard return. Benton gave the ball right back on a lateral fumble, but Central returned the favor with a lateral fumble of its own with senior Braylon Alcorn recovering and returning it to the Tiger 2-yard line. Junior Beau Brewer would run it in on the first play and Matt Warrick’s extra point made it a 7-0 lead with just over a minute into the second quarter.
The Panther D remained stout, forcing its fourth out of five punts in the first half and senior starting quarterback Nate Beck went to work. Beck went 5 for 5 for 65 yards and an 18-yard TD pass to Trey Pepper and 14-0 lead with 7:05 left until the half.