After defeating last year’s 6A state champions last week with ease in the 6A West Conference opener, despite losing their starting quarterback, the Benton Panthers make the long trek to Siloam Springs in more West action tonight. Benton beat Russellville 42-20 a week ago, losing junior quarterback Colen Morrow in the first quarter and down 7-0. Morrow is out for the season with an ACL tear.
Insert sophomore receiver Gavin Wells, who had an injury of his own, but definitely didn’t slow him down much. Wells, the offensive line and the Panther defense led Benton to victory last week and Wells, who passed 8 of 10 for 116 yards and a TD, and ran 13 times for 87 yards, will be under center again tonight.
“We’ll go with Gavin this week,” Benton Head Coach Brad Harris said. “He’s really the only quarterback we have completely healthy right now. Colen is out for the year with a torn ACL. Peyton Hudgins, we hope to get him back next week. He’s been practicing all week with no contact.
“Gavin has had a full week now of being our quarterback. Hopefully that helps him this week and he has an even better ballgame than he had last week. He did a great job last week coming in. I wasn’t really planning on him playing a whole lot with the hand injury (hairline fracture) and he did a great job leading our offense.”
The Benton offensive line helped the Panthers (3-1, 1-0) to 465 total yards, including 339 on the ground led by junior Zak Wallace’s 118 and senior Beau Brewer’s 76 and four TDs, and the Benton defense held the Cyclones to 270 total yards, playing excellent after Russellville’s opening drive. Junior Ty Neathery led Benton with three sacks.
“I think we tallied up 18 TFL/quarterback sacks,” Harris said. “That’s awesome in one game. Defensively, after the first series, I thought we played really well. Their touchdowns came late in the game when it was kind of irrelevant. I thought we got better last week after that first series. I’m proud of how the guys responded from a defensive standpoint. Each week you’ve seen us improve and hopefully you’ll see that same progression this week.
Kickoff for tonight’s conference game is 7 p.m. at Glen W. Black Stadium and can be listened to on 106.7 FM “The Ride”.