Football Friday: Eagles, Cougars set for county clash; Tiger Cubs travel to take on Vikings; Cloverdale, Brown County look at the other for first win

Week two provided another round of bitter medicine to the four Putnam County football teams, having done the same a year ago, with the closest gap a 21-point loss for North Putnam against Southmont.

Bounce backs are expected across the board while the second Putnam County matchup of the season is a game two years in the making after the Cougars were forced to sit week three out in 2021.

South Putnam’s 56-27 win over North Putnam in 2020 had broken a five-game winning streak for the Cougars in the series dating back to 2015. The Eagles played at Tri as a result of the cancellation of the intercounty meeting, winning 29-6.

Both teams come in after being outpaced on the defensive side of the ball, giving up a pair of touchdown passes and at least four rushing scores.

Both sides also relied on young quarterbacks to make things happen as neither side was able to break 100 yards in the running game last week.

Christian Kramer did not throw an interception in week two after tossing four in week one while Wyatt Mullin had a pair of interceptions against Owen Valley and was restricted in his ability to get the ball down field, throwing for 98 less yards than Kramer with four more completions.

When the teams played two years ago, the Eagles amassed nearly 500 yards of offense, splitting it evenly between pass (255) and run (237) while the Cougars could only get half as many yards with a similar number of offensive plays.

South Putnam is capable of doing a similar job but North Putnam has shown flickers of being able to match the offensive output and will need a better job on the defensive side to keep the pace Friday.

Greencastle, meanwhile, travels to West Vigo a week after Northview ran for over 400 yards against the Tiger Cub defense.

Though Greencastle was not bad on the ground themselves, rushing for over 200 yards, a lack of passing activity meant the Knights were able to bottle up the offense while using their own punishing ground game to keep control of the way the game was played.

The Vikings, meanwhile, cruised past a Parke Heritage side that is rebuilding a year earlier than anticipated, amassing over 200 yards on the ground and taking advantage of four turnovers and a blocked punt for quick scores to knock out the Wolves.

A week prior, South Vermillion scored on its first two possessions and ended West Vigo drives on an interception and downs to keep the Vikings from getting into the scoring column.

Cloverdale’s search for a win continues with Brown County visiting, one of the few teams the Clovers have had success against in recent seasons as the two teams are split 6-6 since 2010.

After hanging with Edinburgh for most of the first half, when the wheels fell off for Cloverdale, they came off in a hurry as a 7-7 tie turned into a 28-7 halftime deficit in the span of just under six minutes of the second quarter.

The Eagles have endured a similar tough start to the season, getting a late score against Owen Valley in its 77-7 loss while only recording a score on a kickoff return in a 46-6 loss to Jennings County.

Both teams will eye the week three matchup as a chance to get into the win column, Brown County having done so in the past two meetings by 36 and 40 points.