Eagles soar to title: South wins 11th sectional crown

South's Jackson Wood takes off for the end zone in Friday's sectional title win over Traders Point Christian.

Chuck Hess photo

After losing in the sectional championship game two out of the last three years, the South Putnam Eagles earned their first sectional title since 2013 — when Troy Burgess was in his last season as the Eagles’ head coach — by beating the Traders Point Christian Knights 55-8 at home Friday night.

It marks head Coach Nathan Akers’ first championship after taking over the program in 2014 and it comes after a 3-6 regular season.

Overall it was a good night for South Putnam (6-6, 0-5 WIC) coaches as Burgess won a sectional championship at Evansville Central and former Eagle head coach Bob Gaddis won a sectional championship at Columbus East.

Mark Wildman, the head coach that split those two, was at the Eagles’ game Friday night.

“(It feels) tremendous,” Aker said. “It’s been a lot of kids and a lot of coaches. Our cheer block and cheerleaders tonight that was really tremendous. It was really cool. It was a great crowd. It’s been a lot of work to get back here. To get the 11th (South Putnam football sectional championship) and to have Coach Wildman here it was a special night.”

It did not take long for the Eagles to show they were going to be a wrecking ball to play against. Only a couple of plays into the game Xavier Langley intercepted Knights’ quarterback David Hart for the first of his two interceptions and on the first Eagle play, Riley Stone threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Kain Gregory.

Stone completed 6 of 8 passes for 156 yards and three touchdowns on the evening.

After a Traders Point three-and-out, the Eagles scored again on a 75-yard drive, capped off by a Connor Cain 14-yard rushing touchdown.

South's Kain Gregory celebrates a touchdown against Traders Point Christian on Friday night.

Chuck Hess photo

The Eagles did not score again until 9:29 remaining in the half when Gregory intercepted Hart and returned it 19 yards for a touchdown. Hart threw four interceptions, including three in the first half.

Adding to the 461 yards of total offense the Eagles had in the game, senior Dalton Scott scored three rushing touchdowns — including one at the end of the first half and one each in the third and fourth quarters. He had 127 rushing yards and another 29 receiving yards.

“Tremendous work ethic and kids sticking through the tough part of the season (is how they got it done),” Aker said. “I felt like we let a couple of county games slip but the kids kept coming back. This is what they wanted to do for four years tonight and they got it done.”

The Knights found very little offense all night long. Getting only 99 yards of offense was a testament to the Eagle defensive line and linebackers flying around and getting stops for little or no gain.

Traders Point barely averaged over a yard per carry and Hart, who ran a team-leading 12 times, had a negative total in yardage.

“Four interceptions, that’s crazy,” Aker said. “To hold that offense to eight points ... They’ve (Traders Point) been putting it (points) up all year and strength of schedule is paying off. Traders Point wasn’t ready for it.”

Finally, the Knights got a score on the board with a little trickery in the third quarter, the result of a hook-and-ladder. Myles Cox caught a 12-yard reception from Hart who then tossed it backward to Kye Johnson. He ran it in from 11 yards and he also scored the two-point conversion.

After having the game clearly in control at 42-8 in the fourth, the Eagles were trying to run the clock out but when faced with two third-down-and-longs, they were forced to throw. Both passes resulted in long touchdowns with Gregory getting his third touchdown, catching a 50-yard touchdown with 8:43 remaining and Jackson Wood catching a 43-yard touchdown with 6:24 remaining. Those were the final scores of the game.

The Eagles had 305 rushing yards and they have historically praised their offensive line for this. On Friday night the line got praised again but this time the wide receivers got a little extra attention. Guys like Steven Schnepp and Gregory held the edge off so Cain and Scott could get to the outside. Without their contributions, the running game would have been much smaller.

“All the receivers and all the backs (did a great job blocking),” Aker said. “The O-line and D-line were constantly rotating guys to keep them fresh and when you play so many guys it wears defenses down. They led the offense and they’ve taken care of Riley.”

South Putnam will get to renew an old playoff rivalry next Friday when they host Indianapolis Lutheran and former North Putnam head coach Dave Pasch at 7 p.m. The last time these two teams met other than the annual scrimmage each year was in the sectional semifinal in 2014. Lutheran won that game 47-0.

Despite the history, Aker said he has great respect for Pasch and looks forward to the matchup.

“Coach Pasch does a tremendous job,” Aker said. “I look at him as a mentor and a friend. We’ve had some epic battles over the years and he really got me my first year here. Those guys do a tremendous job and they’re classy.”

1st Quarter

10:24 SP: Gregory 34-yd reception from Stone (Pass failed)

4:20 SP: Cain 14-yd run (Pass INT)

2nd Quarter

9:29 SP: Gregory 19-yd interception return (Switzer run)

2:07 SP: Scott 3-yd run (Langley run)

3rd Quarter

4:39 SP: Scott 3-yd run (Run failed)

2:25 TP: Johnson hook-and-ladder from Cox pass from Hart (Johnson run)

4th Quarter

11:58 SP: Scott 1-yd run (Scott run)

8:43 SP: Gregory 50-yd reception (Kick wide)

6:24 SP Wood 43-yd reception (Bemish kick)

Individual statistics

Rushing — Traders Point (19-27): Johnson 3-25 TD, Underwood 4-3, Hart 12-(-1). S. Putnam (56-305): Scott 26-127 3 TD, Cain 8-59 TD, Switzer 8-45, Langley 4-32, Gilliland 5-28, Stone 5-14.

Passing — Traders Point: Hart 8-19 62 4 INT. S. Putnam: Stone 6-8 156 3 TD INT.

Receiving — Traders Point: Cox 6-43, Underwood 2-19. S. Putnam: Gregory 2-84 2TD, Wood 1-43 TD, Scott 3-29.