PEARCY -- Lake Hamilton showed it could have just as much success in the air as the Wolves do on the ground as the Wolves knocked off Siloam Springs 41-7 to remain undefeated on the season.
The Wolves (5-0, 3-0 6A-West), playing in front of a homecoming crowd, made the switch early to a pass game led by junior quarterback Easton Hurley, and he helped lead the offense to a 41-0 halftime advantage. The Panthers (0-5, 0-3 6A-West) came out looking for the run game, as their defense proved it was ready for, with several stops down the stretch. It was not long, however, until Hurley began to connect with both his runners and receivers to ultimately rout the Panthers.
"I think we can switch to the pass game with Easton," said Lake Hamilton head coach Tommy Gilleran after the game. "So as long as we got him, I think we always have an opportunity to do those type of things. So I was proud of him and what he did, so we need that to carry over through the season so we have a chance to be more successful in all parts of our game."
After the Wolf defense held the Panthers to a three-and-out from their own 28-yard line to start the game, Hurley went long to senior running back and receiver Justin Crutchmer from 39 yards out for the touchdown for a 6-0 lead following the botched extra point attempt. Junior Bryan Garcia would go on to nail his next five attempts on the night, however.
Hurley next found sophomore David Felan on the left sideline for a 44-yard touchdown before he went back to Hurley, on fourth-and-15, from 27 yards out at the 1:15 mark for a 20-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Starting off the second, on another fourth down attempt, Hurley connected with senior Kendrick Martin off a screen pass, who proceeded to go 21 yards for the score. Hurley's last two touchdown passes on the night came with less than three minutes to go in the first half. Breaking tackles along the way, Crutchmer sprinted 82 yards off the short pass before taking the final touchdown in at 58 seconds.
The Panthers' lone score of the night came following a Lake Hamilton fumble less than one minute into the third quarter when sophomore defensive back Mikey McKinley picked up the loose ball and went in from 20 yards out.
Siloam Springs head coach Brandon Craig said he was pleased to hold the Wolf offense to under 100 yards rushing, even though the secondary gave up several yards.
"That's really good against this run-based offense," he said. "They're 72% run, so we knew we were going to have our hands full, but got beat on some man-on-man coverage. No. 5's (Crutchmer) a great player and he beat us. He beat us in the one-on-one stuff. We knew we had to either go sell out to stopping him or try to stop the run. We sold out to stopping the run. And, you know, they're a good football team and they could take advantage of that. He does a great job every year."
He said he thought his team played physical on both sides of the ball and that is something they have to continue to do.
"I mean, we knew they were a big physical team and I felt like we matched that intensity up front," he said. "Again, we just didn't balance up the skill level. We got our quarterback hurt in, I think, the second series, so we lost him. Our backup quarterback sprained his ankle on defense. So we were hurting. We were down to our third quarterback. He did a really nice job. Came in and ran our offense for us the best he could. Hasn't taken a lot of reps, obviously, the third string quarterback, but he's played some JV games so we were happy about what he did."
Siloam Springs starting quarterback sophomore Jackson Still was replaced early on by sophomore Dane Marlatt before senior Nick Driscoll finished out the night at quarterback.
While pleased with the team's defensive play, Gilleran noted the Panthers did a good job at taking away some of their run plays.
"You know, the pass game was wide open on some stuff and so we felt like we could take advantage of that, and that's what we did," he said. "So we worked on some of that stuff and then some of that stuff we didn't. We just made some adjustments through the game and then kids made plays."
He said he is looking forward to the rest of the season and improving each game.
"I think our kids understand that you know every game's a chance to get closer to a conference title but also, you know, seeding in the playoffs. So our kids need to realize every opportunity they have is a chance to get closer to a state title," he said.
Hurley went 8-for-9 passing for 230 yards while Crutchmer racked up 200 yards off five catches. Martin tacked on 27 yards off eight carries as well as 31 yards on one pass. Driscoll went 2-for-4 passing with 17 yards as junior running back Jed Derwin led the ground game with 17 carries for 60 yards.