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Northview defeats Eagles
The Northview Knights matched the program's best start to a season Friday night with a 59-0 blanking of South Putnam. Northview will go into a battle on the road against the Eastern Division's top team, Owen Valley.
Northview dominated from the opening kickoff against an admittedly banged-up Eagles squad that came in with a 5-2 overall record. South Putnam was missing several important starting linemen as well as its leading receiver, Jimmy Rutter.
However, the Knights came out firing with a tone-setting 30-yard touchdown pass from Tucker Stewart to Liam Jones on the third play of the opening drive.
While the Eagles were able to gain a first down behind the combined rushing efforts of Kyle Shaffer and Dalton Scott on its opening drive, the Knights' defense stiffened to force a punt.
In fact, while the Knights' offense is typically the story, the defense gave its team short fields most of the evening as South Putnam pulled out all the stops while playing from behind.
The Eagles punted on its first two drives, but were denied on a fourth-down pass on the third drive. Jacob Dean forced a fumble that was recovered by Marcus Duregger on the next Eagles' possession. Each time, the Knights capitalized with a touchdown strike.
"I thought our defense came ready to play physical football. South Putnam is a physical team. Unfortunately they had a few of their key guys out, which I think had something to do with how things went," Northview coach Mark Raetz said. "I thought defensively we did a very good job of tackling, reading keys and getting lined up."
Northview harassed Eagles' quarterback Grady McHugh much of the night, hauling him down three times for losses of a combined 25 yards. Allen Plunkett also saw time in the backfield as a QB and was dropped for losses of nine yards on three carries.
Meanwhile, the Stewart to Jones connection was working to perfection as South Putnam stacked the line of scrimmage to limit the Knights' dynamic playmaking senior Ben Girton.
Jones hauled in six passes in the first half, four of them for touchdowns as the senior caught TD receptions of 25, 13, 30 and seven yards as Northview built a 35-0 lead at intermission.
Raetz admitted that while the Eagles "limited" Girton to 56 yards and a pair of scores on 10 carries, it simply opened up the passing game for Stewart.
"Really they were putting nine (defensive players) in the box. We were getting two on two on the outside against our receivers, which we feel good about that match-up," Raetz said. "If Liam (Jones) has single coverage there in the slot we are going to take it. It all sort of works off each other. If you run the ball well effectively teams have to adjust. If we start throwing the ball effectively teams have to adjust. South Putnam chose to keep trying to stop our run."
Northview was able to mostly bottle up Shaffer in the game, holding the junior back to 59 yards on 19 carries and in turn the Eagles gambled on fourth down in their own territory several times in the second half.
Girton scored on an 11-yard run after the Knights took over at midfield after halting the Knights on a fourth-down pass incompletion. The defense came up with another fourth-down stop at the Eagles' 22-yard line and Dylan Boor kicked a 32-yard field goal.
Mason Moon recovered a fumble on the next kickoff and MJ Shelton found the end zone for a score as Northview's offensive reserves played the final 18 minutes of time on the clock.
South Putnam will face Cascade in the WIC crossover game Friday.
Northview 14 21 17 7 - 59
South Putnam 0 0 0 0 - 0
First quarter
Nv -- Liam Jones 30-yard pass from Tucker Stewart (Dylan Boor kick), 10:51
Nv -- Ben Girton two-yard run (Boor kick), 5:15
Second quarter
Nv -- Jones seven-yard pass from Stewart (Boor kick), 9:04
Nv -- Jones 25-yard pass from Stewart (Boor kick), 7:45
Nv -- Jones 13-yard pass from Stewart (Boor kick), 1:24
Third quarter
Nv -- Girton 11-yard run (Boor kick), 5:50
Nv -- Boor 32-yard field goal, 0:45.5
Nv -- MJ Shelton five-yard run (Boor kick), 0:33.1
Fourth quarter
Nv -- Austin Huey two-yard run (Boor kick), 11:54
Nv SP
First downs 15 7
Rushes-yards 28-171 38-75
Passing yards 132 14
Comp-Att-Int 10-14-0 3-13-1
Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-2
Penalties-yards 4-20 3-20
Individual statistics
Rushing -- Northview: Girton 10-56 2TD, Stewart 6-62, Dean 3-18, Jones 1-8, Shelton 3-2, Huey 2-17 TD, Lancaster 1-5, Weishaupt 1-4, Shaw 1-(-1); South Putnam: Shaffer 19-59, McHugh 3-(-25), Plunkett 3-(-9), Scott 1-3, LeBlanc 11-41, Cain 1-3.
Passing -- Northview: Stewart 9-of-11 117 yards, 4 TD, 0 Int., Lancaster 1-3 15 yards, 0 TD, 0 Int., Shaw 0-0 0 yards. South Putnam: McHugh 3-of-11 35 yards, 0 TD, 0 Int., Plunkett 0-1 0 yards, 0 TD, 0 Int., Shaffer 0-1 0 yards, 0 TD, 1 Int., Zeffel 0-0 0 yards.
Receiving -- Northview: Jones 8-117 4 TD, Girton 1-0, Schane 1-15; South Putnam: Grundlock 2-18, Shaffer 1-14.