By Tony Burns
Sports Editor
Siloam Springs will make, what is believed to be, its first-ever trip to Memorial Stadium tonight.
El Dorado hopes to make a lasting impression on the Panthers.
The Wildcats bring a 6-1 overall record, 3-1 in the 6A-West, into the game, which kicks off at 7 p.m. Siloam Springs has struggled to a 2-5, 1-3 season.
In last year’s first-ever meeting between the teams, the Wildcats brought home a 49-23 road win.
“They are much better than last year,” said El Dorado coach Scott Reed. “They had a chance to drive and score and beat Lake Hamilton Friday night. A year ago, they weren’t in games like that. A year ago, they couldn’t score. Now, they can.
“They can throw the ball. They’ve got two good receivers. The quarterback is a good passer. They have something they believe in. They take a few more chances as far as onside kicking you and things like that.”
Siloam Springs piled up 309 yards in last week’s 34-27 loss to Lake Hamilton. Junior quarterback L.T. Ellis passed for 249 yards and two touchdowns, while junior receiver, Kaiden Thrailkill, totaled 115 yards and two scores.
“They’re in the gun - three and sometimes four wides. They’re going to throw the ball,” said Reed. “They throw more slant stuff than we’ve seen in the past. They’ll throw a lot of slants and things like that. They’ve got two really good wide receivers.
“Next to Greenwood, they’re probably as good throwing it as anybody we’ve played.”
After a poor showing at Greenwood, the Wildcats have been stout against the pass the past two weeks.
“We’ve got to be good in coverage. I thought, in the last two weeks, the area on our team that’s made more improvement than anybody is our secondary,” said Reed.
“In the last half of Sheridan and both halves of Benton, I think they improved noticeably. And, we’re going to get a big test (tonight).”
The Panthers opened the season with losses to Rogers (34-33) and Harrison (48-12) before beating Van Buren (35-21).
In conference, they beat Sheridan (31-24) but have dropped three in a row to Benton (49-14), Greenwood (48-0) and last week to Lake Hamilton.
Defensively, the Panthers have surrendered more than 35 points per game.
“They’re an odd front, a lot more like Benton but they don’t bring as much pressure,” said Reed. “They don’t bring a lot of it until you get down in the red zone.”
Benton used a blitzing 3-3-5 alignment. Reed said Siloam Springs is more like a 3-4.
“I would really like to be able to run the ball. I do want to be balanced. I always want balance. But, I’m hopeful we can run the ball. Our offensive line played well last week. We did a good job picking up their blitz stuff. I’d like to see us take another step forward there,” said Reed, who said senior tailback Richard Kesee is still out with an injury.
Sophomore Alex Hicks ran for more than 100 yards last week.
“He’s doing a good job. He and (Jarius) Curry both did good stuff. I feel good about that,” said Reed. “We need to hang onto the ball. Alex did a good job in protection, too, picking things up. I think he’s going to get better and better.
“And, I thought Jarius played really well. He had two or three good blitz pickups and he ran downhill. So, I feel good about that.”
The Wildcats will have to pay close attention in the kicking game. Reed said the Panthers have shown they’re not afraid to get tricky in special teams.
“They’ve got to where they’ll onside kick you some so we need to be alert and not allow them to get anything cheap. We need to be alert on kickoff return,” he said.
“Their kicker is a weapon. He kicked one with a behind-the-leg deal against Greenwood, an onsides kick. He can also kick off to the end zone. He’ll put a lot of pressure on your kickoff return team.
“I hope we cut down on our turnovers. We had four last week. That’s entirely too many.
“Defensively, we need to be good against the pass. We need to limit their run-after-catch. We don’t need them to hit a high percentage. We need to knock it loose some, too. We need to get some turnovers.
“Offensively, I’d love to see our offensive line take another step forward.”
Last week’s win over Benton put the Wildcats in good positioning for the playoffs. Reed said tonight’s game is all about keeping the momentum.
“Continue with the process, take another step forward,” he said, “don’t give away something we worked hard to get a leg-up on last week.”