BENTON – After routing the defending 4A state champion Arkadelphia Badgers 56-17 on the road two weeks ago, the Benton Panthers’ final nonconference game will be no cakewalk tonight at Panthers Stadium in Benton. In fact, there will be a lot of running from the Cabot Panthers as they ran the ball 58 out of their 59 plays in a 27-10 win over the El Dorado Wildcats last week.
“They’re a really good team,” Benton Coach Brad Harris said of Cabot. “I’m really impressed. We went and watched them last week at El Dorado and they’re really tough. They handled El Dorado pretty easily.”
Not only did Cabot down El Dorado, the Panthers handled an always good Pine Bluff Zebras team 35-14 in their opener when senior T.J. Rogers ran 11 times for 149 yards and junior Graham Turner had 117 yards on 18 carries. Turner also had 113 yards against El Dorado with two more backs going for 69 or more yards.
“Offensively, they’re really good at what they do,” Harris said. “They don’t do anything fancy. They’re two-tight, Dead-T backfield 100 percent of the time. They just run it right at you. Their philosophy is stop it if you can. They’re not the biggest offensive line that we’ve seen or the biggest running backs, but they do a really good job doing what they’re coached to do.
Benton and Cabot will kick off at 7 p.m. at Panthers Stadium at the Benton Athletic Complex in Benton. Listen on 106.7 FM The Ride.
Read the rest in today's The Saline Courier