BENTON 63, CATHOLIC 0

If there’s a silver lining to the loss Benton suffered to Sylvan Hills in week five, it’s that it set the stage for history to happen at the Palace on Friday night.

The Panthers hosted their oldest rival, the LR Catholic Rockets, in the 62nd all-time game between the two teams. And that bit of past history turned into a history-making night in the Panthers 63-0 shutout of the Rockets.

The win gave Benton Head Coach Brad Harris his 84th win, passing Dwight Fite as the all-time wins leader at Benton High School. Coach Harris came to Benton in 2014 as the Defensive Coordinator for then-Head Coach Scott Neathery and assumed the Head Coach role in 2016. His overall record now stands at 84-32.

Drew Davis also made history on Friday becoming the first ever Panther quarterback to throw for 100 touchdowns in a career. His six touchdown passes give him 105 and three more will place him in the Arkansas Activities Association top 15 all time. He also passed Garrett Brown as Benton’s all-time passing yardage leader. Davis eclipsed Brown (7,984 yards) in the second quarter and his 293 passing yards Friday night places him at 8,053 for his Panther career.

Beyond the history-making moments, the Panthers played their most complete game of the season in the victory. The offense rolled to 429 yards on 40 plays while the PDC limited the Rockets to just 89 total yards on 49 plays, including just 28 rush yards on 27 carries.

Davis’ six touchdown passes were all in the first half to fellow seniors Will Carter and Karson Collatt. Carter (9-161) hauled in TD passes of 68, 11, 9, and 6 yards while Collatt (7-102) had TD receptions of 18 and 10 yards.

The other first half score came when senior safety Cordell Payne picked off a Phillips Blair pass and returned it 39 yards for a pick-six.

Gabe Wilbur was perfect on six first half PATs while senior Gavin Betts nailed the final PAT to give the Panthers a 49-0 halftime lead.

With the starters removed for the second half, played under the AAA Sportsmanship Rule with a continuously running game clock, Benton added touchdowns by sophomores. C.J. Sellers had a 17-yard scamper on the opening drive of the second half and, following a Rocket fumble, Easton Snellings found paydirt from two yards out in the fourth quarter to set the final score at 63-0.

The win improves the Panthers to 6-2 overall, 4-1 in the 6-A East. Sylvan Hills (7-1, 4-1) continued to keep pace atop the standings with a 49-42 win at Jonesboro. Benton hits the road next Friday, traveling I-40 East to face the West Memphis Blue Devils (0-8, 0-5). Kickoff at Hamilton-Shulz Field in West Memphis will be at 7:00.