Monrovia dominant in 56-13 victory over Cougars

Saturday, October 29, 2016

MONROVIA — The North Putnam Cougars traveled to Monrovia to take on the Bulldogs on Friday in the semifinals of Sectional 39 and a chance to face Mitchell in the championship. Monrovia was victorious over North Putnam, 56-13.

North Putnam moved the ball well to start the game, as the Cougars did for the entire game but once they got inside Monrovia’s 30-yard line they seemed to stall out every drive, just like this first one.

“We just could not produce in the red zone today,” North Putnam head coach Greg Barrett said. “They are a well-coached team with lots of discipline. I am proud of our effort, we did not quit in the second half.”

Three plays later Monrovia was on the board with a 70-yard touchdown run. North Putnam controlled the ball the entire first quarter holding Monrovia to just five plays while the Cougars ran 23 of their own.

The Cougars felt pretty good heading into the second quarter trailing just 7-0, but Monrovia would quickly put a damper on their spirit.

Monrovia would rattle off four touchdowns in a span of eight plays that came over an eight-minute span in the middle of the quarter to take the lead to halftime 35-0 in favor of the Bulldogs.

“We have been preaching all week ‘No big plays’ because they are a big play team,” Barrett said. “They definitely ‘big played’ us tonight. We did a good job stopping the inside run and then they hit us on a play-action pass or an outside run. They are a well oiled machine.”

This blowout was not to say that the Cougars did not have players who shined, as senior Max Haste bulled his way to seven catches for 100 yards and ran over and through defenders for that yardage.

Junior quarterback Hayden Rudes was impressive once again completing 14-of-27 passes for 173 yards.

Despite having a completion rate near 50 percent, he threw great passes, the Monrovia defenders just made some great plays.

“It is tough when you get put in situations you do not want to be in,” Barrett said. “It is tough when you are calling plays on third-and-long and we still had a lot of good plays.”

Senior Solomon Gross also came up big, scoring the two Cougar touchdowns.

The first with 9:19 left in the third on a seven-yard fumble return after a great Haste punt pinned the Bulldogs at the 10-yard line.

His second score of the game came on a 90-yard kickoff return with 10:53 left in the game to cap the scoring.

Monrovia accumulated 474 yards of total offense in the game while North Putnam had 230.

Most of Monrovia’s offensive yardage came on four plays of 50 yards or more.

Despite the loss, the Cougars have their youth to hang their hats on for the coming year. They will return a good core group of position players and they will be hungry for revenge next year despite losing 12 seniors.

“The senior group was a great group of guys,” Barrett said. “They led by example and have done a nice job over the last four years.”

North Putnam 0 0 7 6 — 13

Monrovia 7 28 14 7 — 56

M — Dalton Smith 70 run (Jacob Smith kick) 7-0, Q1 6:53.

M — Clay Whitney 32 run (Jacob Smith kick) 14-0, Q2 8:58.

M — Conner Jelley to Dalton Smith 47 pass (Jacob Smith kick) 21-0, Q2 6:30.

M — Gabe Milton 57 run (Jacob Smith kick) 28-0, Q2 2:12.

M — Garrison Lee 2 run (Jacob Smith kick) 35-0, Q2 :31.

NP — Solomon Gross 7 fumble return (Gage Bell kick) 35-7, Q3 9:19.

M — Bryan Cox 38 interception return (Jacob Smith kick) 42-7, Q3 5:53.

M — Gabe Milton 15 run (Jacob Smith kick) 49-7, Q3 3:18.

M — Garrison Lee 10 run (Jacob Smith kick) 56-7, Q4 11:07.

NP — Solomon Gross 90 kick return (Gage Bell kick failed) 56-13, Q4 10:53.

NP M

First downs 10 9

Rushes-yards 31-57 39-387

Passing Yards 173 87

Comp-Att-Int 14-27-2 2-3-0

Total Offense 230 474

Fumbles-Lost 3-1 5-3

Penalties-Yards 6-50 9-75

Individual Statistics

Rushing — North Putnam: Solomon Gross 17-60, Ethan Christy 5-11, Gage Bell 5-8, Hayden Rudes 4-(-21). Monrovia: Garrison Lee 18-114, Gabe Milton 8-98, Clay Whitney 4-51, Blake Riordan 3-31, Dalton Smith 2-68, Conner Jelley 1-13, Logan McPeak 1-8, Trenton Inglert 1-7, Ian Wray 1-1, Camryn Smith 1-(-4).

Passing — North Putnam: Hayden Rudes 14-27-0 173, Corbin Judy 0-1-0 0. Monrovia: Conner Jelley 2-3-2 84.

Receiving — North Putnam: Max Haste 7-100, Luke Mitchel 3-18, Gage Bell 2-17, Ethan Christy 1-33, Corbin Judy 1-5. Monrovia: Dalton Smith 1-47, Tyler Padgett 1-37.

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