Preview: Searcy Lions vs. Benton Panthers
The Searcy Lions will head out on the road to face off against the Benton Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Last Friday, Searcy humbled Greene County Tech with a 47-14 victory. The win was just what Searcy needed coming off of a 56-35 defeat in their prior game.
Tyler Strickland continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, throwing for 285 yards and five touchdowns while completing 73.1% of his passes, and also punching in a touchdown on the ground. Strickland was no stranger to the big play, turning on the jets for a run that went for 54 yards. Curtis Goodrich also helped out as he racked up 116 receiving yards.
Meanwhile, Benton had already won five in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 38.2 points), and they went ahead and made it six on Friday. They didn't even let Jacksonville onto the board and left with a 70-0 win. Given Benton's advantage in MaxPreps' Arkansas football rankings (they are ranked tenth, while Jacksonville is ranked 99th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Searcy's victory was their fifth straight at home (dating back to last season), bumping their overall record up to 5-2. That said, the team wasn't facing the toughest opposition over that stretch, as it included 0-8 Sylvan Hills and 0-10 Jacksonville (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 20% over those games). As for Benton, their win on Friday bumped their record up to 6-1.
Searcy was dealt a bruising 62-28 defeat at the hands of Benton when the teams last played back in October of 2022. Can Searcy avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
