North Putnam outguns West Vigo for second win of season

BAINBRIDGE - The North Putnam Cougars tallied almost 500 yards of offense, balanced between the ground and the air, to ease to a 63-25 victory over the visiting West Vigo Vikings in WIC green division play.

The scoring came early and often in this one. Noah Claycomb kicked off the scoring for North midway through the first on a one-yard plunge. The Cougars added the two-point conversion on a pass from Christian Kramer to Paxton O’Brien.

The Vikings had answers early. Preston Montgomery took a counter handoff and rambled 55 yards under a minute later. Their conversion try failed and the score was 8-6.

Just over a minute later Kramer found Wesley Murphy on a 23-yard strike. Evan Polley added the extra point and it was 15-6.

West Vigo countered right back as Rhyan Shaffer threw a halfback option pass to Montgomery for another score. The conversion failed again though, to make it 15-12 after the first quarter.

The Cougars started to pull away in the second quarter. Kramer took one in from five yards out and Claycomb added another rushing touchdown.

North Putnam was having trouble with the Viking counter play. The Vikings’ Eli Roach took one to the house, racing 93 yards for the score.

North would get one more score before the break when Kramer scrambled around the left side on a ten-yard run. The hosts would miss the extra point to make it 35-18 in a crazy first half.

North took control after halftime. Kramer threw for two scores, a four-yarder to Myles Bryan and a 50-yard bomb to O’Brien streaking down the seam. Kramer also added a 22-yard scoring run, as the freshman QB was having a night.

The Vikings added a score late in the third as quarterback Kaleb Marrs found Andrew Stivers alone in the endzone. Kyson Daugherty put the extra point through the uprights to get West Vigo back on the board.

North added one last score in the final quarter Kramer threw his fourth touchdown pass of the night, this time to Braxston Mitchell from 16 yards out to make the final 63-25.

“(West Vigo) was able to bust a couple of those counters on us, but we made our adjustments and were able to get some turnovers. Claycomb is running his tail off and our quarterback was able to get some runs in tonight. We did a lot of good things offensively,” Cougar head coach Scott Moore said.

The Cougars move to 2-1 in division play. Next Friday they will make the long drive to Brown County in hopes of making it three wins in the division.

“We’ve got to continue to focus on getting better every day and not wasting the opportunities we have,” added coach Moore.

Scoring

1st

6:45 NP Claycomb 1 run (pass good)

5:49 WV Montgomery 55 run (pass failed)

4:35 NP Kramer 23 pass to Murphy (Polley kick)

1:20 WV Shaffer 10 pass to Montgomery (pass failed)

2nd

10:29 NP Kramer 5 run (Polley kick)

6:08 NP Claycomb 1 run (Polley kick)

5:12 WV Roach 93 run (run failed)

1:09 NP Kramer 10 run (kick failed)

3rd

10:46 NP Kramer 4 pass to Bryan (Polley kick)

9:36 NP Kramer 22 run (Polley kick)

6:14 NP Kramer 50 pass to O’Brien (Polley kick)

2:51 WV Marrs 21 pass to Stivers (Daugherty kick)

4th

6:16 NP Kramer 16 pass to Mitchell (Polley kick)

Team Stats

Individual Stats

Rushing - (NP) Claycomb 33-220, Kramer 7-7, Murphy 2-34, Hankins 3-26; (WV) Higgins 13-102, Roach 6-99, Shaffer 3-51, Montgomery 1-55, Marrs 2-3

Passing - (NP) Kramer 15-19-217-4-1; (WV) Marrs 5-12-80-2-1, Shaffer 1-1-10-1-0

Receiving - (NP) Bryan 4-52, Murphy 4-41, O’Brien 1-50, Claycomb 3-29, Glaze 1-19, Mitchell 1-16; (WV) Higgins 2-46, Cuffle 2-24, Montgomery 1-10