El Dorado entered Friday’s 6A West game against Siloam Springs with a five-game losing streak and a minus-10 turnover margin. For the first time all season, the Wildcats did not commit a turnover and walloped the Panthers 30-6, ending the skid and jumping into a lead position in the race for one of the two final playoff spots.
“That’s been the key every single week. We told them tonight, we take care of the football we would put ourselves with a good opportunity to win the game. We did that tonight,” El Dorado coach Steven Jones said after the game on Friday.
He talked about it again on Saturday after reviewing the film.
“We didn’t try to do too much. There have been times we’ve tried to force stuff, make a big play happen or not focus as much as we needed to be. But we didn’t try to do too much. It helped with ball security and helped us hold on to the football. That was probably the key.”
Defensively, the Wildcats had their best performance of the season, including a game-changing defensive stand in the second half.
“Very pleased with our defense,” said defensive coordinator Trey Outlaw. “We're starting to show how good we can be when it all comes together.”
Quentin Frazier led the team with 14 tackles, including two tackles for loss. Jacoby Hankton had 11 tackles with a sack and three tackles for loss. Also on the defensive line, Martavious Green had seven tackles with a sack. Green also broke up three passes, including the fourth-down pass in the goal line stand.
Jyrin Steward led the linebackers with 10 tackles. Jacove Lewis had seven tackles with Carmerius Rucks recording six stops with an interception. In the secondary, Will Artis, Emon Ingram and Deontre Norman had seven tackles. Artis had an interception return for a touchdown.
Offensively, El Dorado showed a more balanced attack, moving the ball on the ground in the first half before opening up the air attack in the second half. Jones pointed at the offensive line.
“We thought Dalton Perdue had his best game,” he said of the senior tackle. “He did a great job of keeping his feet moving. It looked like he kept everything kind of simple. He didn’t try to do too much. When he would down block and things like that, he was able to be pretty physical.”
Siloam Springs actually shut down El Dorado’s ground game in the second half but that opened up the pass.
“It was what they were trying to do defensively. We try to take what they give us. We felt like after a pretty solid first half of running the football, they lined up to take that away, so we spread ‘em out a little bit and were able to make some plays out of the passing game,” said Jones.
“Offensive line did a good job of adjusting after coming off the ball in the first half to more pass-setting type stuff in the second half.”
For El Dorado, which was celebrating its Homecoming, the win was the first at Memorial Stadium this season and it was Jones’ first conference victory with the Wildcats, who could secure the No. 5 seed with wins against Russellville and Little Rock Hall, who are both winless in league play this season.