North Putnam flies past Cloverdale for first win

After a 50-carry performance against Covenant Christian, North Putnam's Noah Claycomb (center) only had 30 carries against Cloverdale yet nearly had an identical number of rushing yards, gaining 283 yards on the ground with two rushing touchdowns, along with a receiving touchdown, in the Cougars' 58-7 win over the Clovers.

Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

BAINBRIDGE – There was a festival feel at North Putnam as the Cougars welcomed in Cloverdale for homecoming Friday night.

There was a festival feel on the field throughout the first quarter as well as the first 12 minutes of play featured a safety, four touchdowns, three turnovers, two more fumbles and even a pair of sideline warnings that resulted in penalty yardage.

The key moment in the game was also a penalty, though a more unfortunate one, as the Clovers saw a score wiped out and within 10 plays the hosts tacked on another score, setting up a furious finish to the half in which the home team scored three more times as part of a 58-7 win.

“It’s big, it means so much to these kids and I’m so happy for them,” North Putnam head coach Scott Moore said about picking up the first win of the season and the first win of his head coaching career. “It didn’t come without a little bit of adversity but that’s part of being a young team and learning how to win a game.

“Once we got going, we were able to do a lot of things while not shooting ourselves in the foot. Our defense played much better after simplifying a few things we thought could help our personnel and did a lot of good things.”

“We had a touchdown that would have cut the lead in half in the second quarter that was called off because of a penalty and from then on out, we shut down,” Cloverdale head coach Tyler Lotz noted. “We’re not there physically yet and (North Putnam) ran it, we wore down and got outmanned tonight.”

Noah Claycomb, who was put to work the previous week to the tune of 50 carries and 284 yards, was put to work early again, receiving the first five handoffs in the contest, moving inside the Cloverdale five-yard line.

The last carry, however, ended up on the deck and Evan Yoho came away with the recovery.

A three-and-out soon followed and the ensuing punt snap was bobbled and dropped with punter Michael King forced to dive on the ball and absorb a safety with several Cougars converging.

Claycomb would drop his next touch as well but teammate Quenton Brown was able to recover to keep the possession.

Cloverdale's Jaxton Helton reels in a 23-yard pass from Tayt Jackson during the first quarter of Friday's 58-7 North Putnam win over the Clovers.

Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT

The senior back took the next three handoffs before a well designed screen saw Christian Kramer roll to his right before dumping the ball back to Claycomb, who scampered 21 yards for a score and an 8-0 lead.

North Putnam was in business again immediately when Tayt Jackson was intercepted by Braden Glaze but Claycomb lost the ball again with the visitors recovering.

Levi Johnson took the following handoff 62 yards with the second sideline warning against the Cougars adding another five yards, setting up Jackson to hit Jaxton Helton for a 23-yard score, closing the gap to 8-7 with only five minutes having come off the clock.

The ensuing kickoff was squibbed and ended up in the hands of Kai Coning, who lost the ball yet was able to come back up with it in the ensuing scrum.

Claycomb continued to carry the bulk of the load, though the ball hit the deck yet again on a missed handoff, one Kramer recovered, before turning around on the next play and hitting older brother Arrick Kramer on fourth-and-four for an 11-yard score and a 14-7 lead.

The hosts added one more score before the end of the quarter when Claycomb barreled in from 13 yards out, capping a seven-play drive in which the senior carried the ball five times for 60 yards, for a 22-7 lead.

“We always knew between (Noah) and this offensive line that we should have success running the ball,” Moore said about the uptick in touches for Claycomb the past two weeks. “We were able to finally trust our assignments to get Noah loose and he’s running like a mad man right now.

“He’s getting fully healthy, able to get back into the weight room again and it’s showing.”

Cloverdale responded with a steady drive that looked like it had halved the deficit when Jackson found McGuire Lee for a score but an ineligible man downfield penalty wiped out the score.

The Clovers would turn the ball over on downs three plays later and Claycomb would end up in the end zone again after five more carries, eating up 65 yards and ending with an 11-yard run for a 30-7 lead.

“If you’ve been a part of Cloverdale football, especially in recent years, you’ll know that our kids aren’t mentally there because of our history,” Lotz said about the reaction following the negated score. “When things start going bad, we start hanging our heads.

“We, as coaches, try to keep telling them to keep their heads up and move on as we have an offense where something like that might happen. We couldn’t get past it until halftime but by the time halftime rolled around, it was already out of hand.

“We have to continue to get mentally tough and physically strong.”

On the next North Putnam snap, the Kramers connected again for a 58-yard score and a 37-7 lead.

The visitors were reeling and after a punt, the hosts drove 89 yards in nine plays, ending with Christian Kramer hitting Myles Bryan for a 37-yasrd score and a 44-7 lead.

There was even time for one more score as North Putnam forced a punt and, getting a beneficial personal foul call to negate a blown up screen, Christian Kramer hit Bryan on a swing pass and 52 yards later, the latter was in the end zone again for a 51-7 lead.

The running clock expedited the second half, which would only see four total possessions, but had enough time for Arrick Kramer to add one more score from nine yards out to cap the third quarter.

Both teams step out of the conference next week as North Putnam (1-4, 1-1 WIC) traveling to Cascade while Cloverdale (1-4, 1-2 WIC) hosts South Decatur.

“Next week is homecoming and there’s a lot of distractions that week,” Lotz said about preparing for a new set of Cougars. “The biggest challenge we face as coaches and players is staying focused amid all of those distractions.

“We have an opportunity to get our second win against (South Decatur) but we have to worry first about us and getting better ourselves.”

“We know what (Cascade) has and they’re a program that has done nothing but improve over the past three seasons,” Moore said about facing the Cadets. “They run an old school Wing-T offense with some unbalanced looks, so we have to be ready to adjust and play physical football.”

Scoring

1st Quarter

NP — Safety 10:22 2-0

NP — Claycomb 21-yard pass from C. Kramer (XP no good) 8:08 8-0

CL — Helton 23-yard pass from Jackson (Jackson kick) 7:03 8-7

NP — A. Kramer 11-yard pass from C. Kramer (XP blocked) 3:45 14-7

NP — Claycomb 13-yard run (M. Bryan conversion) 1:19 22-7

2nd Quarter

NP — Claycomb 11-yard run (A. Kramer conversion) 8:42 30-7

NP — A. Kramer 58-yard pass from C. Kramer (Polley kick) 6:46 37-7

NP — M. Bryan 37-yard pass from C. Kramer (Polley kick) 2:18 44-7

NP — M. Bryan 52-yard pass from C. Kramer (Polley kick) :09.9 51-7

3rd Quarter

NP — A. Kramer 9-yard run (Polley kick) 1:12 58-7

Statistics

Individual Statistics

Rushing

Cloverdale — 20-60 — Johnson 13-54; Jackson 7-6

North Putnam — 48-343, 3 TD— Claycomb 30-283, 2 TD; Brown 8-32; Kinkead 4-9; C. Kramer 3-5; Hankins 2-14; A. Kramer 1-9, TD

Passing

Cloverdale — Jackson 6-18-89, TD, INT

North Putnam — C. Kramer 13-20-227, 5 TD

Receiving

Cloverdale — Lee 3-27; Hilton 2-39; Helton 1-23, TD

North Putnam — M. Bryan 4-85, 2TD; Claycomb 4-35, TD; A. Kramer 3-70, 2 TD; Glaze 2-37