Blackhawks to host Siloam Springs Panthers

Game is Tuesday in preseason tussle

Coach Stephen Neal's Pea Ridge Blackhawks will give local football fans a glimpse into the upcoming 2017 gridiron season as the Siloam Springs Panthers will be coming to town Tuesday night for a pre-season scrimmage.

"Fall camp has gone quite well," head coach Neal related. "We are very pleased with how hard our players and the whole organization is working. We are beginning to settle on our depth charts and we are very pleased with our young players and their development."

Blackhawks vs. Panthers

6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 22

Blackhawk Stadium

"We have a good idea on who our starters will be and we are trying to develop more depth which we will eventually need," Neal went on to say.

Set to begin at 6 p.m., fans will get get their first look on the team fresh off an appearance in the 2016 4A state championship game. The Panthers are members of the 6A classification, competing in the 6A West which includes teams from as far east as Sheridan, as far south as Texarkana, and as far southeast as El Dorado.

The Panthers had a rough year in 2016, losing a raft of key players to injuries in the first half of the season to leave the team woefully shorthanded for most of the campaign. Siloam lost their last six games in the 6A West by over 30 points a game average. Only two starters on offense and four on defense return, making 2017 perhaps a year to rebuild.

Panthers' head coach Brian Ross has re-engineered both the offensive and defensive schemes for 2017 and has more than 110 players in camp to battle for spots in the lineup. That kind of competition will bring out the best in players.

The Panther offense will be triggered by athletes who had their seasons curtailed by injury last year. Quarterbacks junior L.T. Ellis and sophomore Taylor Pool are both back and will be healthy when Siloam comes calling to Blackhawk Stadium. Their top running back is Kaiden Thrailkill was also injured in 2016, missing two months with an ankle injury. A junior, Thrailkill competes in track and runs the 100 in 11.4.

Isaac Knudsen is one of the top lineman for Siloam, a 6'2", 240-pound senior. Another lineman to look out for is junior Corbin Collins, 6'2", 275 pounds and a welcome transfer student Rueben Nino, a senior tackle at 6'2" and 285 pounds. Senior lineman Kameron Greenlee is reputed to be the strongest Panther, bench pressing 320 and squatting 500 pounds.

Hooten's magazine reports that Siloam's running back and linebacker athletes are outstanding, but a lack of linemen will force the ones they have to put in more playing time than head coach Ross would prefer.

The experts will probably see a decided edge in Pea Ridge's favor for this practice dustup, but as the Panthers are in a classification two levels higher than the Blackhawks, the battle might well be much closer than experts may think.

Come on out to the game Tuesday. See the newest version of the Pea Ridge Blackhawks. The next time you will get to see them on the home field will the third game of the regular season on Sept. 15.

Siloam Springs replaced longtime preseason opposition Greenland, member of the 3A-1 district. Last year the 'Hawks ran rampant over the Pirates in the preseason benefit game. With a tougher non-conference schedule this year followed by an even tougher one in 2018, the Blackhawks are working to improve their level of play.

The boys from the Ridge will have an interesting schedule to start the season, counting the charity game with Siloam. They will play in three games in 10 days before getting a week off before resuming regular Friday night scheduling. They travel to Conway Aug. 28 to play Hamburg on the UCA campus before traveling to Booneville Sept. 1.

Major league baseball

hitting the home stretch

The baseball majors are now down to the last 40 games of a 162-game schedule.

In my favorite league, the National League, two divisions are being blown out by their leaders. My favorite division, the NL Central, four teams are still in the hunt for a divisional title with the St. Louis Cardinals and defending World Series champs tied the lead.

As of this writing, the Cardinals were riding an eight-game winning streak which include a victory seemingly sparked by what folks are now calling the "Rally Cat." Last Thursday, the Cardinals were losing to cross state rival Kansas City 5-4 late in the game. The Cardinals loaded the bases, but were facing two outs with catcher Yadier Molina at bat. Before the Royals reliever could throw his second pitch, a small kitten scampered onto the outfield, leading to a game stoppage while the grounds crew corralled the feline.

After the small delay in the action, the Royals pitcher offered his second pitch to Molina who parked it in in the left field bleachers to put the Cardinals on top 8-5. They would go on to win that game, completing a four-game sweep of the Royals and put a crimp in Kansas City's plan to take the lead in the AL Central. The animal kingdom's intrusion into major league baseball is not without precedent.

Back in 2011, the Cardinals were at home when a squirrel showed up at the park and ran across the pitching mound during the game. After the rodent was caught, the Cards came back to win and went on to take the league crown and World Series title. The Rally Squirrel then went down as part of the Cardinals baseball history.

Currently Los Angeles looks like a lock for the league playoffs, sporting a 17-game lead with an unbelievably good 82-34 record in the NL West. They lead a pair of really good NL West teams in Arizona and Colorado who are currently tied for the wild card spot with 65-51 records. Washington leads the NL East with a 69-45 record, with no other team in the division even having a winning record.

Houston is running away with the AL West, having a scintillating 71-48 record, 12 games ahead of second place Los Angeles Angels. The Angels have been saddled with a high payroll cost with under performing players. Chief among those is former St. Louis superstar Albert Pujols, who left the Cardinals for the Angels after the 2011 World Series victory for a $25 million dollar per year contract. A lifetime .325 hitter with the Cardinals as the first baseman, Pujols has struggled in LA, having a meagar .225 batting average for the Angels, and reduced to being just a designated hitter.

KC was up there with AL Central leader Cleveland until the four-game sweep by the Cardinals dropped them behind the pace. The Royals started badly out of the gate, having the worst record in major league baseball after the first month. They came around, got hot and fought their up the standings until they were on the precipice of first. Losing the four-game set to the Cards has slowed their progress but they can and likely will bounce back in the late going.

Boston is leading in the AL East by four and a half games over the Yankees, being led by former Arkansas Razorback National Player of the Year Andrew Benitendi. The young Benintendi has a lifetime .283 batting average in the two seasons he has played in the majors at Boston.

I predict that the three super teams, Los Angeles, Houston and Washington, will not make it to the World Series. More often than not, teams that pile up huge leads in their league races kind of end their year on cruise control. St. Louis led the entire major leagues in victories for most of 2015, but got beat in the first round of the playoffs. In 2011, they made a late season drive to just barely get in as the last qualifier for the playoffs. They then went on to take the World Series title.

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Editor's note: John McGee is an award-winning columnist and sports writer. He is the art teacher at Pea Ridge elementary schools and writes a regular sports column for The Times. The opinions expressed are those of the author. He can be contacted through The Times at [email protected].

Sports on 08/16/2017