Cougars fall in sectional round

Friday, October 10, 2014
North Putnam's Parker Coffman moves the ball into enemy territory during the loss. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

TERRE HAUTE --Since the IHSAA split soccer into two classes four years ago, North Putnam's boys' team has found their season ended in sectional play by Covington.

Paired with the Trojans again Wednesday, the Cougars were undone by two first half goals in two minutes, falling to the defending sectional champions 5-0.

North Putnam head coach David Moeller said that the performance against a strong squad was commendable.

"I told them after the game I thought we played well in the second half," Moeller said. "The score didn't reflect that but overall, we played better in the second half than we did the first.

"I told them I was proud of their efforts tonight. Covington is just better than us and we'd have to play a really good game because any mistake we made, they capitalized on."

Unlike in their sectional final meeting last season, where the squad was bitten on the counterattack, the Cougars were outmanned by a Covington squad that dominated possession for most of the match.

Moeller said that keeping the Trojans at bay was part of the game plan but the lack of possession hurt the squad's chances of attacking.

"We didn't really have much as much possession up top or in the middle as I would have liked," Moeller said. "Covington did a good job possessing the ball and switching the point of attack."

Cougar junior goalkeeper Bailey Allen was left wrong-footed for Covington's first goal 11 minutes in. A.J. Kline intercepted in a pass in the Cougar defense and placed his shot in the right corner to put the Trojans ahead 1-0.

Two minutes later it was 2-0 after Covington put in a pair of corners and Zeb Newlin slammed the ball into the top left corner from 10 yards out.

North Putnam did record a shot on target in the first half. Dalton Krominaker sent a free kick in during the final minutes that required Dylan Moore to make a save and preserve Covington's two-goal advantage.

Covington moved ahead by three goals when Newlin doubled his tally, much to Allen's frustration.

Newlin moved in from the right and unloaded a fierce shot that Allen parried wide, only for the ball to be centered back to the Covington forward, who slipped his second shot past the Cougar keeper.

Seven minutes later, Newlin turned provider when he teed up Travis Coleman for a tap-in and the scoring was completed six minutes late once Cory Messick cleaned up a goalmouth scramble to make it 5-0 to the Trojans.

Allen kept the score from getting out of hand for the Cougars, recording 14 saves on the evening, including several impressive saves against Coleman, Newlin, Kline, Ollie Petit, Josh Allen and Spencer McCone.

North Putnam finishes the year 2-13, a season that Moeller said was difficult with so many new faces entering the starting lineup at the beginning of the year.

"It's been a tough year," Moeller stated. "There's been a transition from how we played last year to this year.

"We lost a lot of starters from last year. As the year went on, we learned a lot and started playing better together as a team."

With only one senior departing from the squad and a bevy of juniors, along with several sophomores and freshmen, returning, Moeller said that he expected a lot of the losses from this season to turn into wins next year.

"We had close games this year that I feel like we let slip away," Moeller noted. "Those are definitely games we should win next year and that starts in the offseason.

"We need to make sure we're playing in the spring, throughout the winter and continue working on getting better. We want to have a better year than we did this year and improve the speed of our play by becoming more familiar with one another before we start next year."


At West Vigo

North Putnam 0 0 -- 0

Covington 2 3 -- 5


Shots (on Target)

NP -- 1 (1); C -- 36 (19)

Saves

NP -- 14; C -- 1

Corners

NP -- 3; C -- 6

Fouls

NP -- 6; C -- 12

Offsides

NP -- 0; C -- 7

Yellow Cards

NP -- 0; C -- 0

Red Cards

NP -- 0; C -- 0

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