Cougars happy with offense in win

North Putnam's Skyler Warren brings down Jake Wilkes of Cloverdale on Friday.

Chuck Hess photo

BAINBRIDGE — Despite 40-degree weather and the rain and snow on Friday night, the North Putnam Cougars came away with a 34-0 victory over the Cloverdale Clovers on their senior night.

After winning the toss, the Clovers (2-7, 2-4 WIC East) deferred to the second half and the Cougars (6-3, 3-3 WIC West) had to take the ball on the part of the field that was torn up from last Friday’s loss to Greencastle. That part of the field had been troublesome for the Cougars in that game, but they marched it down the field quickly on Friday.

Senior quarterback Evan Davies and the Cougars went 59 yards to the Clover 24-yard line before Wyatt Helterbrand intercepted Davies’ pass at the 5-yard line. Davies was hit as he was throwing and that forced the ball to be thrown short of his intended receiver.

“We’d like to play a football game in dry weather one time and let Evan show off his arm,” Cougar coach Sam Carnes said. “Offensively we did a great job.”

The Clovers, after practicing a new offense this past week, threw out their junior varsity skilled position players — including Corey Bennett at quarterback. That was a mistake, as they were forced to a three-and-out and had to punt from their own end zone.

That punt gave the Cougars one of their four starts inside Clover territory after Lucius Alexander returned it 31 yards to the Clover 9-yard line.

Rushing the ball was no issue for the Cougars on Friday night as the offensive line opened big holes on almost every play. Both senior Chris Murray and junior Aiden Baker rushed for more than 100 yards each and for a combined five touchdowns. Murray nearly had 100 yards in the first quarter alone and scored both touchdowns in the quarter.

“Our running back ran hard,” Carnes said. “Our O-line did a great job and only gave up one pressure on our quarterback all night. Murray runs fast and Baker smashed them in the mouth.”

Murray’s first touchdown came with 7:51 remaining in the first quarter on a nine-yard run and again with 3:05 remaining in the quarter on a five-yard run.

When Murray finally took a rest, Baker got the Cougars back on the scoreboard with 11:11 remaining in the half when he ran it in nearly untouched from six yards out. Exactly seven minutes later Murray got the final score of the half on a two-yard carry.

The only chance the Clovers had to score all night was on a halfback pass to end the first half and that pass was overthrown by Jake Wilkes for Jake Smith. Had the ball been caught, it would have been an easy touchdown.

That final possession of the half for Cloverdale also resulted in its first two first downs of the night. They got two in a matter of three plays with less than a minute to go but only managed to get one more in the second half. North Putnam had 19 for the night.

The Cougars only kept their varsity players out for two drives in the second half, both in the third quarter. Baker scored on the first possession after a 28-yard run and they punted for only their second time of the night on the second possession.

Despite giving up more than 100 yards rushing last week to Greencastle, the Cougars really turned things around against Cloverdale by only giving up 24 yards from the line of scrimmage, including only four rush yards. A lot of this had to do with the defensive line getting penetration on almost every play. This is all on top of the Cougars getting their first highly sought after shutout of the season.

“How we did it is we did our job,” Carnes said, “Our defensive coaches every week do a great job of putting a defensive plan together every week and out kids came out this week and executed it. It is great to hang a zero. For the defense that is awesome. I’m so proud of them.”

Both teams played their varsity players in the fourth quarter as both teams want to stay healthy for next week. These two teams will play against each other for the third time next week when sectionals begin, but this time it will be at Cloverdale.

“We’re excited to come out and play another game of football,” Carnes said. “We love the fans and we play for us. We put in all this work and we came out tonight and reaped the rewards.”

1st Quarter

7:51 NP: Chris Murray 9-yd run (Elliott Sabens kick) 7-0

3:05 NP: Murray 5-yd run (Sabens Kick) 14-0

2nd Quarter

11:11 NP: Aiden Baker 6-yd run (Sabens Kick) 21-0

4:11 NP: Murray 2-yd run (Sabens Kick) 28-0

3rd Quarter

4:11 NP: Baker 28-yd run (Kick no good) 34-0

Individual statistics

Rushing — Cloverdale (30-4): Abner 7-19, Wilkes 2-14, Smith 1-5, Holder 2-3, Watts 3-0, Fox 4-(-1), Evans 3-(-6), N. Bennett 3-(-7), C. Bennett 5-(-23). N. Putnam (43-294 5 TD): Baker 14-119 2 TD, Murray 13-118 3 TD, Greene, 6-27, Lawrence 2-21, Proctor 2-11, Summers 3-8, Davies 4-(-10).

Passing ­— Cloverdale: Watts 2-8 20, C. Bennett 0-2, Wilkes 0-1. N. Putnam: Davies 4-11 29 INT, Summers 0-2 INT.

Receiving — Cloverdale: Wilkes 2-10. N. Putnam: Alexander 3-21, Clifford 1-8.