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Turnovers doom Cougars in opening loss
BAINBRIDGE — On an opening night in which each team on the field — North Montgomery, North Putnam and the officiating crew — struggled to find its footing early, the Chargers figured it out first on Friday night.
Capitalizing on a glut of Cougar turnovers and penalties and turning them into several big plays of their own, the Chargers spoiled the debut of new Cougar coach Scott Moore by a final score of 36-7.
Until a score late in the fourth quarter, the home team struggled to string together sustained drives. Promising possessions were wiped out by costly penalties or untimely turnovers, of which the Cougars committed seven on the night — three lost fumbles out of six total and four interceptions.
Despite the mistakes, Moore first of all credited North Montgomery for being a tough opponent.
“North Montgomery is a good football team,” Moore said. “They came together at the end of the year last year and played some really good teams really tough. So we knew we had our work cut out for us.”
That came to the tune of a Charger defense that forced multiple plays for loss in addition to the turnovers and an offense that pounded the ball on the ground and was opportunistic in the passing game.
“I thought we came out and battled,” Moore said. “We did a lot of good things, we had some opportunities. We didn’t make the most of them. You can’t ever win a football game turning the ball over seven times.”
Nobody could find momentum in a scoreless first quarter, but a 31-yard pass from Charger quarterback Ross Dyson to Lucas Lighty set up a 15-yard Austin Sulc touchdown run on the next play to put the Cougars up 6-0 with 10:38 remaining in the second quarter.
Lightly completed just five passes on the night, but two were for scores, a 29-yard strike to William Ramsey and a 59-yarder to Lighty, and just one was for less than 29 yards.
“Defensively, at times we’re just a little bit lackadaisical and a good team like that can hit you,” Moore said.
Besides this, much of the damage — nearly all of it in the second and third quarters — was done by the pounding of fullback Sulc, who carried the ball 15 times for 100 yards and two scores.
The remaining Charger score was a run by Gage Galloway.
Even when North Montgomery fumbled the ball, losing three on the night, the Cougars gave it right back. Twice this came on the very next play, and the other just three plays later.
The final Charger score of the night came with 1:17 remaining in the third quarter and set up a running clock for the remainder of the evening.
Still, Moore noted that his team continued to battle.
“I’m proud of our guys. We battled and fought,” Moore said. “I just feel for them because we have worked our butt off and we’ve done a lot of good things. We have a chance to be a good football team, so we just have to keep taking it day by day. We’ve got to learn from this and come back next week and just keep getting better every day.”
Such work finally paid off on the scoreboard with just 26 seconds to play, as freshman quarterback Christian Kramer put the turnovers behind him and led the Cougars on an eight-play, 86-yard scoring drive that featured long completions to Myles Bryan and older brother Arrick Kramer before Noah Claycomb finished off the drive with a four-yard touchdown plunge.
The younger Kramer finished the night 21-of-33 for 218 yards, with Bryan hauling in five catches for 84 yards and Arrick Kramer eight catches for 82.
Claycomb led the Cougar running game with 19 carries for 51 yards.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Cougars, with the first of two consecutive road games coming at Southmont next Friday. Coach Desson Hannum’s squad opened the season with a 55-12 win over Fountain Central.
“Coach Hannum does a good job over there,” Moore said. “We’re going to have our work cut out for us. We knew that the start of our schedule was going to be a tough one. We just have to come out, get our game plan in and keep executing and hopefully get over another hump.
Still, Moore said he saw improvement following the scrimmage last week at Indianapolis Lutheran, and he expects more of the same.
“I felt like we got over another hump from our scrimmage to this week,” he said. “It wasn’t enough, but we just have to keep believing in what we’re doing and hopefully we’ll get over another hump and stay competitive throughout next Friday.”
The Cougars and Mounties kick off at 7 p.m. on Friday from New Market.
| North Montgomery | 0 14 22 0 — 36 |
| North Putnam | 0 0 0 7 — 7 |
Scoring
2nd Quarter
NM: Sulc 15-yd run (run fail) 10:38
NM: Ramsey 29-yd pass from Dyson (Sulc run) 2:06
3rd Quarter
NM: Lighty 59-yd pass from Dyson (Norman pass from Dyson) 6:35
NM: Galloway 4-yd run (Ramsey pass from Dyson) 4:09
NM: Sulc 7-yd run (run fail) 1:17
4th Quarter
NP: Claycomb 4-yd run (Polley kick) 0:26
Team Stats
| NM | NP | |
| First downs | 11 | 12 |
| Rushes/yds | 36/166 | 30/72 |
| Pass yds | 152 | 218 |
| Total yds | 318 | 290 |
| Fumbles-lost | 3-3 | 6-3 |
| Interceptions | 0 | 4 |
| Penalties | 8/53 | 10/99 |
Inidividual Stats
Rushing
North Montgomery: Sulc 15-100 2 TDs, Galloway 6-29 TD, Dyson 9-15, Norman 1-13, Warren 5-9
North Putnam: Claycomb 19-51, A. Kramer 5-18, Bryan 1-6, C Kramer 3-(-1), Hankins 1-(-2)
Passing
North Montgomery: Dyson 5-11-152, 2 TDs
North Putnam: C. Kramer 21-33-218, 4 INTs
Receiving
North Montgomery: Lighty: 2-90 TD, Ramsey 1-29 TD, Norman 1-32, Hardy 1-0
North Putnam: A. Kramer 8-82, M. Bryan 5-84, Claycomb 3-26, Murphy 3-18, Glaze 1-6, Staggs 1-2