Clar, Christy top honor squad

Player of the year: Offense Devin Clar, Greencastle
Clar (30) seeks to get away from Crawfordsville defenders in his team’s season opener. The senior went on to set his school’s career rushing record with 2,932 yards. He had 1,874 yards and 20 touchdowns this year.

Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

The number “30” is a common factor on the 2016 all-Putnam County football team, as both of the top two honorees coincidentally wore those digits.

Greencastle senior Devin Clar, the Offensive Player of the year, used that number to reach an even more impressive one — a total of 1,874 rushing yards that ranked him 12th in the state.

Ethan Christy, a North Putnam junior linebacker, also used his No. 30 to lead his team in tackles with 112 and earn the Defensive Player of the Year award.

Clar carried the ball 270 times, averaging 6.9 yards per carry, and scored 20 touchdowns. His monster season, which allowed him to become the school’s career rushing leader with 2,932 yards, also helped propel the Tiger Cubs to a reversal of last year’s 1-9 record to a 9-2 mark this season — one of the best turnarounds in state history.

“Devin was a major reason for Greencastle’s successful season,” Tiger Cub coach Mike Meyer said.

Player of the year: Defense Ethan Christy, North Putnam
Christy (30) makes one of the 112 tackles from his linebacker position. The junior had 81 solo tackles and 31 assists, four tackles for loss, one interception, two fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles for the Cougars.

Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

Eight of Christy’s tackles were for a loss, and he also accumulated three sacks, one interception (returned for a touchdown), two fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles.

“Ethan is a tough kid, hard worker and smart player,” North Putnam coach Greg Barrett said. “He leads by example.”

The team, chosen by the four county coaches, consisted of 13 players from county champion Greencastle, nine from county runnerup North Putnam, seven from third-place South Putnam and four from Cloverdale.

Nineteen senior players were chosen for the team, with 11 juniors and four sophomores also making the honor squad.

Each player was only permitted to be earn one spot on the team, although several excelled on both sides of the ball.

Statistics are not available for offensive linemen, but here are some numbers for remaining players at the other positions:

• Quarterbacks — Nick Costin completed 78 of 158 passes for 787 yards and eight touchdowns, with only five interceptions.

Hayden Rudes, the at-large player chosen, was the signalcaller for North Putnam. He had 94 completions in 158 attempts for 1,092 yards and six touchdowns.

• Running backs — Kyle Shaffer of South Putnam was the county’s second-leading rusher with 1,446 yards on 227 carries, ranking him 48th in the state. He had 18 TDs.

Solomon Gross, a senior move-in for North Putnam from Pennsylvania, gained 1,016 yards on 145 carries with 19 TDs. Derek Ummel complemented Clar with 463 yards of his own on 86 carries, with four TDs.

Cloverdale’s Tyce Jackson, who also played at quarterback, carried the ball 129 times for 401 yards and three touchdowns.

• Receivers — Rudes found Max Haste 49 times for 670 yards and three scores, and also connected with Luke Mitchel 21 times for 138 yards and two TDs.

Cloverdale’s Nick Winders caught 18 passes for 298 yards and one score, while J.T. Matthews of Greencastle had 21 catches for 247 yards and three scores.

• Defensive line — South Putnam’s Josh Bills was a 400-pound run-stopper who drew lots of attention in the blocking schemes of opponents. He had 19 tackles, seven for losses.

The rest of the line consists of Tiger Cub underclassmen.

Cade Winslow had 91 tackles (21 for losses) and 7.5 sacks, while Gavin Bollman had 75 tackles (23 for losses), one interception and 10.5 sacks. Jacob Meyer had 50 tackles (10 for losses) with 3.5 sacks.

• Defensive backs/linebackers — All four schools are represented in these positions.

Greencastle’s Jackie Scanland had 56 tackles with one interception and Brayden Bollman added 53 stops for the Tiger Cubs, while Alex Costin had 34 tackles and three interceptions.

South Putnam’s Dalton Scott had 88 tackles, six sacks and one blocked field goal attempts, while Jonathan Thibodeau had 38 tackles, three pass deflections and one fumble recovery.

SP’s Christian Zeffel, the defensive at-large player, contributed 37 tackles, two interceptions, two fumble recoveries and one pass deflection.

From North Putnam, Duff had 46 tackles, four fumble recoveries, one forced fumble and one pass deflection, while Judy had 37 tackles and one interception.

Cloverdale’s Tyler Kaeff had 25 tackles, two pass deflections and one fumble recovery.

• Special teams — Ben Webb of Greencastle hit 27 of 32 point-after attempts and also made seven of 11 field goals. Two of those provided the winning points in late-season wins over West Vigo and Owen Valley.

Punter Jonah Sanders of South Putnam kicked 27 times for 1,012 yards (37.5 average) with a long punt of 69 yards.

Teammate Aiden LeBlanc returned 16 kickoffs for 416 yards, with a long return of 84 yards.