BENNETT'S MINUTES: Don’t look now, but tourney time has arrived

Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Kyle Shaffer
Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

The high school fall sports season is moving along quickly, with sectionals already completed in one sport and the other seven state tournament competitions coming up in the next few weeks.

Here is a summary of how things have gone for local teams, or how they will play out in the near future:

Football

• County – Five of the six intracounty matchups have taken place, with only the Greencastle at North Putnam game on Oct. 7 left to play.

That game will determine the unofficial county champion, as both teams have defeated South Putnam and Cloverdale. South Putnam defeated Cloverdale in that matchup to claim third place in the county.

• Conference – Cloverdale remains tied with Indian Creek for first place in the WIC East Division and is probably glad to be done playing the other county schools. The Clovers are 0-3 in those games, and 2-0 against everyone else.

The Clovers play a pair of 1-4 teams the next two weeks (hosting Brown County and playing at Owen Valley), and with a pair of wins would set up a potential divisional championship at Indian Creek on Oct. 7.

In the West Division, Greencastle remains in first place at 2-0 and has a huge game this week at co-leader Sullivan.

North Putnam stands tied for third at 1-1, and South Putnam is tied for fifth at 0-2. The Eagles have won their three non-conference games and lost their two WIC contests.

Crossover games are Oct. 14.

Sectional – The tourney draw is on Oct. 2. The first round of the sectional begins Oct. 21.

All Putnam County teams have powerful opponents potentially awaiting them in sectional play.

Cloverdale and North Putnam will both play in Class 2A Sectional 39. The Cougars are tied with defending state champion Monrovia (ranked No. 2 by the coaches, No. 3 by the media) for the best record among the sectional teams at 4-1.

North Putnam dropped a couple of spots to No. 13 in the media poll after last week’s 55-0 win over Cloverdale.

Monrovia’s only loss came to Class A powerhouse Linton-Stockton, which also handed Class 3A Sullivan its only defeat of the season.

Greencastle will play in Class 3A Sectional 29, which is the toughest one in the state for that class. Indianapolis Chatard has a deceiving 2-3 record, having lost two games to teams in Class 6A, and is ranked the highest among teams in this sectional.

The Trojans are fourth this week in the coaches’ poll and fifth in the media poll. Also ranked in both polls are sectional members Guerin Catholic (ranked No. 5 by coaches, No. 7 by media) and Brebeuf Jesuit (eighth by coaches and ninth by media).

South Putnam will compete in Class A Sectional 45, and will likely run into undefeated Fountain Central (No. 6 in both polls and averaging 56.0 points per game).

The Mustangs have feasted on four straight Class A opponents after an opening-week win over Class 2A Southmont, while the Eagles are proud to have no Class A teams on their schedule to better prepare them for tourney play.

Cross country

• County – The county meet will be Tuesday at South Putnam, starting at 4:30. Greencastle is the likely pre-meet favorite among girls’ teams, while South Putnam’s boys defeated Greencastle in a recent invitational meet and those teams should battle for the title.

• Conference – The WIC meet will be on Oct. 1, and has been moved from its original site of Brown County to Edgewood. Greencastle’s Emma Wilson and South Putnam’s Kieffer Vittetow loom as two of the individual favorites.

• Sectional – Oct. 8 at at South Putnam.

Boys’ soccer

• County – Greencastle defeated North Putnam 4-0 on Aug. 30 to win the county title.

• Conference – Greencastle won the West Division title, and will play at Edgewood on Saturday for first place in the WIC.

• Sectional – The draw is on Friday, and the sectionals begin the week of Oct. 3.

Girls’ soccer

• County – North Putnam defeated Greencastle 1-0 to win the title.

• Conference – The Cougars finished second in the West Division and will play for third place in a crossover game on Saturday. Greencastle finished third in the West and will play for fifth place on Saturday.

The final pairings will be determined by the outcome of the final regular-season divisional matches this week.

• Sectional – The draw is Friday, and sectionals begin the week of Oct. 3.

Boys’ tennis

• County – Greencastle defeated South Putnam 5-0 earlier this season to win the county title.

• Conference – Greencastle won the WIC West Division and beat Brown County 4-1 in the crossover match to claim the conference crown. South Putnam lost 3-2 to Edgewood in the seventh-place crossover match and finished eighth.

• Sectional – The draw is on Monday, and both county squads will play in the Northview sectional starting next Wednesday.

Volleyball

• County – Greencastle defeated Cloverdale and North Putnam earlier this month to win the county title.

• Conference – Several matches remain to be played before the divisional standings are finalized and crossover pairings are made.

Sullivan (14-1 overall) leads the West Division with a 2-0 record, followed by Northview at 3-1, West Vigo at 2-2, Greencastle at 1-2, North Putnam at 1-3 and South Putnam at 0-2.

Cascade and Owen Valley lead the East Division with 3-1 records, followed by Edgewood at 2-2, Indian Creek at 1-1 and both Cloverdale and Brown County at 0-2.

• Sectional – The tourney draw is on Oct. 10, and the first round matches start on Oct. 18. Greencastle goes to the Class 3A North Montgomery sectional, while Cloverdale, South Putnam and North Putnam will compete in the Class 2A Monrovia sectional.

Odds and ends

• South Putnam’s Kyle Shaffer racked up an impressive total of 331 yards rushing in a lopsided win over Class 4A Edgewood, but that’s unbelievably not a school record.

The holder of that mark is Jimmy Pilcher, who ran for 364 yards against Cloverdale in 1997.

• With big games last week, both Shaffer and Greencastle’s Devin Clar have moved into the top 10 in the state in average rushing yards per game.

Shaffer is eighth with 178.8 yards per game, while Clar is close behind in 10th with 175.6 yards per game.

• Greencastle will have its only home cross country event of the season on Saturday, hosting the Tiger Cub Invitational at the Big Walnut Sports Park.

The schedule has the elementary coed race starting at 9 a.m., followed by the girls’ varsity/JV race at 9:30, the boys’ varsity/JV race at 10:15, the middle school girls’ race at 10:55 and the middle school boys’ race at 11:30.

Cloverdale and North Putnam will be in the race, along with teams from Bloomfield, Cascade, Crawfordsville, Monrovia, Northview and Southport Middle School.

• Greencastle’s volleyball team will be competing against one of the nation’s top players early next month when Terre Haute South comes to McAnally Center.

The Braves are led by Purdue recruit Caitlyn Newton, a powerful 6-2 outside hitter who has competed in the U.S. Olympic development program. She is ranked the No. 59 player nationally by PrepVolleyball.com.

Some basketball fanatics will remember her dad, Greg, who played center for the Duke Blue Devils from 1994-97.

South will play at Greencastle on Oct. 3, starting at 7:30 p.m.

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