BENTON – It wasn't looking good for the Benton Panthers in the first quarter after the defending 6A champs Russellville Cyclones scored a touchdown on their first offensive series of the game and Benton junior quarterback Colen Morrow went down with an injury early. Insert sophomore third-string quarterback Gavin Wells, and with the help of a punishing Panther offensive line, Benton went on to beat those defending champs 42-20 to start the 6A West Conference 1-0 and improve to 3-1 on the young season.
"I'm real proud of the guys," Benton Coach Brad Harris said. "They came together and played real good, tight-knit football. They had each other's backs. Some adversity hit us early with playing sloppy and Colen going down, but the guys rallied together. We hung on."
The Cyclones (1-3, 0-1) would get on the board early as junior quarterback Rhett Adkins had a big 52-yard run to the Benton 12-yard line and he would hit senior Seth Plummer for a 7-yard touchdown to put Russellville up 7-0 with 9:47 left in the first quarter.
On Benton's second offensive series, Morrow had a great 25-yard run to the Russellville 21-yard line with about 4 minutes left in the quarter, but was slow to get up and would not return the rest of the game.
"I don't know if we have good luck or not on the injury front," Harris said. "It's his left knee. We don't know, ACL possibly. They're going to get him in (today) for an MRI and see what's going on.
"From all the signs, it looks like a knee injury. We just hope it's not ACL or something that will cost him the rest of the season. Hopefully we can get him back. Right now we're struggling keeping those guys healthy."