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North Putnam suffers fourth straight loss, drops to 2-6
INDIANAPOLIS -- Turnovers continued to haunt the North Putnam Cougars on Friday night and the Brebeuf Braves' LeVante Bellamy compounded the problem.
North Putnam turned the ball over five times, all in the first half, and Bellamy rushed for 232 yards and four touchdowns as the Class 3A No. 8-ranked Braves rolled to a 47-7 victory.
"We did have too many turnovers (in the first half). All year long we've had too many turnovers and you can't win games, playing the No. 8 (ranked) team in (Class) 3A and expect to come out on top," North Putnam coach Gregg Barrett said.
With a cold rain pounding the synthetic turf field throughout the contest, Brebeuf scored on four of North Putnam's five turnovers in the opening half to lead 40-0.
But after kicking off to open the second half, North Putnam held Brebeuf and on third and long, the Cougars' Eric Davis recovered a Braves' fumble.
Taking over at the Brebeuf 14-yard line, North Putnam scored on the second play when Joel Murray pulled in a 16-yard pass over the middle from quarterback Jake Haste. Taylor Zaring kicked the PAT.
That was a big step for North Putnam, according to coach Barrett.
"I'll give our guys a lot of credit. We didn't just fold our tents, we came out and scored (in the third quarter). We got a defensive stop, got a turnover (and) scored and we took advantage of it. I'm very proud of them for doing that," Barrett said.
"We still got another regular season game (with Cloverdale next week) and it becomes a whole new season after next week, so we got to get better at what we're doing. I thought the second half we did a better job of doing that."
The wind and pouring rain and Brebeuf's Bellamy simply overwhelmed North Putnam in the first half.
On the second play of the game, Brebeuf picked off Haste's first pass and four plays later the 5-9, 165-pound Bellamy, a sophomore, scored on a nine-yard run. He also scored on runs of 47, 11 and 40 yards.
"(Bellamy's) a heckuva player. Extremely fast," Barrett said.
Brebeuf made it 19-0 by returning a second interception 21 yards for a score with 2:27 left in the first quarter.
"To give Jake (Haste) credit at quarterback, his second game (at quarterback), we've been putting a lot on him and I thought he did a heckuva job staying in there and being composed. It's not an easy thing to do when the rain is coming down as hard as it was," Barrett said.
North Putnam did not turn the ball over the second half and did recover two Brebeuf fumbles.
At Brebeuf
| North Putnam | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | -- | 7 |
| Brebeuf | 19 | 21 | 7 | 0 | -- | 47 |
First Quarter
B -- LeVante Bellamy 9 run (kick failed) 6-0, 9:29.
B -- D.J. Purdue 8 run (Tyler Ridlen kick) 13-0, 4:08.
B -- Tom McGowan 21 interception return (kick failed) 19-0, 2:27.
Second Quarter
B -- Bellamy 47 run (Ridlen kick) 26-0, 11:50.
B -- Bellamy 11 run (Ridlen kick) 33-0, 9:35.
B -- Stu Dillon 17 fumble return (Ridlen kick) 40-0, 7:15.
Third Quarter
NP -- Joel Murray 16 pass from Jake Haste (Taylor Zaring kick) 40-7, 10:04.
B -- Bellamy 40 run (Ridlen kick), 40-0, 3:26.
| * | NP | B |
| First downs | 6 | 11 |
| Rushes-yards | 39-32 | 39-297 |
| Passing yards | 29 | 0 |
| Comp-Att-Int | 2-5-2 | 0-0-0 |
| Total offense | 44-61 | 39-297 |
| Return yards | 34 | 118 |
| Punts-Avg. | 5-29.6 | 1-33.0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 4-2 | 5-4 |
| Penalties-yards | 1-15 | 7-62 |
Individual statistics
Rushing -- North Putnam: Belcher 10-43, Haste 20-1, Plessinger 1-0, Green 3-(-8), Murray 2-(-3), Quates 1-(-5). Brebeuf: Bellamy 19-232, Young 6-36, Holt 5-6, Ferguson 3-0, Perdue 2-17, Roberts 2-(-3), Farren 2-(-8).
Passing -- North Putnam: Haste 2-5-2--29. Brebeuf: Holt 0-0-0--0.
Receiving -- North Putnam: Murray 1-16, Brewer 1-13.
Next game -- Next Friday, North Putnam (2-6, 1-3 in WCC) will host Cloverdale (0-8, 0-4 in WCC).