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North Putnam takes opening win at GHS
A wild football opening game Friday night turned into a big win for North Putnam when the Cougars visited Greencastle. The Tiger Cubs struck first but North Putnam shut out the Greencastle offense and won 28-7.
"For anyone in the first game you'll have first-game jitters," NPHS coach Greg Barrett said. "We had some penalties. Their effort was phenomenal. We just have to make sure to take care of the little things."
The first big play of the game was a special teams play where a bobbled snap turned a punt into a turnover. The North Putnam punter lost control of the ball and was whacked, forcing the ball lose and Jacob Meyer grabbed the loose ball and took off for the end-zone, giving GHS its first and only score.
North Putnam was able to respond in the second half after securing a fumble recovery near midfield.
The Cougars' Hayden Rudes found Luke Mitchel for a 23-yard pass before later tossing a touchdown pass to Max Haste from the 10. The extra point was missed.
A quick three-and-out gave NPHS another chance just before halftime and Rudes connected with Daniel Huffman for 48 yards to put the ball on the goalline. Rudes then scored on the sneak to make the score 12-7. Rudes then threw a pass to Blake Everts to add the conversion for a 14-7 leads.
"The blocked punt didn't help us any," Barrett said. "We know we've got things to work on. Second half we came out and relaxed. We got big plays right before the half. We scored quick and that was a great momentum changer. We had two guys step up and it worked out well."
The second half was all North Putnam. After stalling out the Greencastle offense, North Putnam return the favor for GHS, blocking Tiger Cub punt before Grant Ewbank picked up the punt and scored for a touchdown.
"Our protection was less than desirable," Tiger Cub coach Mike Meyer said. "I thought we ran the ball but we just couldn't get the passing game clicking. There are multiple reasons for that. We'll get those fixed."
North Putnam put some icing on the cake in the fourth when the running game of Ethan Christy, who had been producing good numbers all night, helped put the Cougars in scoring position.
Kyler Jeter then finished off the drive, bulldozing into the end zone.
"North Putnam was fired up and they came to play," Meyer said. "Unfortunately it came on the wrong end for us."
"We've got to eliminate mental mistakes," Meyer said. "That's the big thing that we have to do. I think we'll be fine. I know we don't like losing to our rival but we've got a good group of kids who will keep working hard. We'll get through this."
North Putnam's next game will be Friday against Southmont while GHS will face Cloverdale on the road.
At Greencastle
Scoring
1st Quarter
GHS -- Meyer 55 yard fumble recovery
2nd Quarter
NPHS -- Rudes 10 yd pass to Haste
NPHS Rudes 2 yd run
3rd quarter
NPHS -- Ewbank 40 yd fumble recovery
4th Quarter
NPHS- Jeter 2 yd run
Offensive Stats
Greencastle
Rushing (atts-yards) 34-65 Clar 20-75, Chew 4-5, Scanland 3- (-5), Carrington 2 -0, Costin 5- (-10)
Passing: Costin 5-11-60
Receiving: Rossok 3-29 Clar 2-14 Scanland 1-8 Meyer 1-10
North Putnam
Rushing 37-137 Christy 17-62, Hodges 7-32, Rudes 5-17 (TD), Jeter 5-15 (TD)
Passing: Rudes 4-9-83 (TD)
Receiving: Huffman 1-48, Mitchel 1-23, Haste 1-10, Everts 1-2
1st downs: GHS 6 NPHS 8
Turnovers: GHS 3 NPHS 2