Six turnovers bury Cougars in 49-8 loss to No. 1 WeBo

North Putnam's Scott Proctor gets tackled by Western Boone defenders on the opening kickoff on Friday.

Banner Graphic/JOEY BENNETT

THORNTOWN — North Putnam coach Sam Carnes knew his team would have to play a nearly perfect game to upset top-ranked Western Boone in the championship game of Class 2A Sectional 38.

After his Cougars lost 49-8 to the undefeated Stars, Carnes could point to one statistic that quickly stood out.

“They’re definitely a very big and fast team,” Carnes said. “They’re the No. 1 team in the state, and you can’t have six turnovers against a team like that. You can’t even have two.”

The Cougars relied on their ground game to get to the sectional finals, but needed to utilize the right arm of senior quarterback Evan Davies.

Davies attempted a season-high 36 passes (his previous high was 25 against Sullivan) and completed 19, but was picked off four times.

Coupled with a pair of Cougar fumbles, North’s chances were severely diminished.

Western Boone forced the Cougars to punt after one first down on their opening drive, and the Stars scored on their second play from scrimmage on a 29-yard run by Kruze Washington.

The teams exchanged punts for the rest of the opening quarter, with Western Boone clinging to its 7-0 lead.

The hosts added three more scores in the second and third quarters to break the game open for good, taking a 49-0 lead into the final period.

Western Boone pulled its starters midway through the third period, and reserve players finished out the game.

North’s Chris Murray, who had surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season last week, got his team on the scoreboard with 6:07 on a 10-yard run.

Senior lineman-turned-fullback Luke Sanford carried the ball across the goal line for the two-point conversion.

“Unfortunately, there are no ‘take-backs,” Carnes said. “I’d like to play these guys again, but that’s not possible. These kids played hard up to the end of the game, and there’s no quit in them; I love this team and I’m proud to be their coach.”

The Cougars finished their season at 8-4, doubling their win total from Carnes’ first season at North Putnam last year.

He will miss this year’s senior class, and credits those 14 players for helping the program to take such a huge step forward.

“The reason we won more games this year was our seniors,” Carnes said. “They bought in completely to what we were doing, starting after we lost to Tipton last year in the sectional. They weren’t going to let that kind of year happen again; that’s not up to North Putnam standards.

“They worked their tails off, and they all came to everything,” he added. “The other reason we won eight games this year was because these kids have worked hard in the weight room. Unfortunately, working hard in the weight room for one year isn’t enough to win a sectional championship.”

Western Boone will play at Indianapolis Scecina Friday in the regional.

First quarter

WB — Washington 29 run (Young kick)

Second quarter

WB — Washington 25 pass from Wright (Young kick)

WB — Hendrix 36 pass from Wright (Young kick)

WB — Hendrix 23 pass from Wright (Young kick)

Third quarter

WB — Washington 65 run (Young kick)

WB — Kernodle 40 run (Young kick)

WB — Brown 2 run (Young kick)

Fourth quarter

NP — Murray 10 run (Sanford run)

Individual statistics

Rushing — North: Murray 13-56, Baker 5-4, Davies 3-7, Sanford 3-13. WeBo: Washington 11-127, Wright 3-22, Kernodle 2-38, Brown 6-48, Irion 2-8, Taylor 4-9.

Passing — North: Davies 19-36-4 136. WeBo: Wright 14-18-0 195.

Receiving — North: Clifford 6-39, Alexander 3-24, Murray 4-32, Proctor 4-25, Barger 1-16. WeBo: Hendrix 6-106, Kernodle 3-10, Benson 2-35, Washington 2-25 McClendon 1-19.