Football Friday: Home comforts abound as Tiger Cubs face Patriots; Clovers, Vikings look for late-season win; Cougars look to continue Eagles’ misery; South Putnam, Heritage Christian square off in state-ranked matchup

The penultimate week of the 2023 football regular season will be the first time fall shows its true colors to the area but fans won’t have to go far, as all four teams will be playing from the comfort of home Friday night.

Greencastle will host Owen Valley for homecoming while North Putnam takes on Brown County, Cloverdale faces West Vigo and, in a matchup of ranked opponents, A No. 6 South Putnam and 2A No. 9 Heritage Christian tangle once again with a 7:20 p.m. start time.

Tiger Cub head coach Dave Stephens and quarterback Cole Stephens will be at the center of the action at Robert L. Harbison Stadium thanks to the former having been on the Patriots’ staff the past two seasons before being hired as head coach at Greencastle this spring.

The latter will be on Owen Valley’s radar thanks in part to his ongoing campaign as a freshman signal caller, having crossed the 2,000-yard threshold with 2,075 passing yards through seven games, throwing 30 touchdowns to seven interceptions.

Five different receivers have more than 200 yards receiving in Owen Huff (687), Ian Williamson (468), Brendle Brennan (391), Brayden Monroe (227) and Lamar Moore (219), the latter having 636 yards on the ground on 81 carries and 12 total touchdowns to lead the team.

Moore also leads the team with 58 tackles though Cameron Pingleton (53) and Parker Welker (46) are closing the gap as the season goes along, Pingleton leading the team with seven tackles for loss and four sacks.

Following two exciting seasons under Stephens and current Avon head coach Rob Gibson, Owen Valley has struggled this season, posting a 2-5 record with wins over Brown County and Edgewood but have been beaten by at least three scores in its other five outings.

Junior quarterback Elijah Anderson was completing less than 50 percent of his passes through week five, averaging just over 100 ypg in the air during that stretch.

Kyvan Bandy and Anderson are the top rushing duo for Owen Valley while Tim Harden, Brayden Phillippe and Derrek Atkinson all have more than 100 yards receiving on the season for the Patriots, who still run out of the spread but have used a more compact formation with wings on either side of the line to try and help get the run game going.

Defensively, Owen Valley still has a large four-man front but lacks the same experience in the linebacker and secondary levels it has enjoyed in years past and has been on the field far more often as the offense has struggled throughout the campaign.

Two teams that have struggled in recent weeks, Cloverdale and West Vigo will view Friday as a chance to get a win ahead of tough week nine matchups and sectional play.

The Clovers may be looking to shake things up after Artrevious Henderson played the second half at quarterback last week, moving Tayt Jackson out to receiver; the pair connected for a late touchdown against Greencastle.

Henderson moved over 100 yards passing as a result while Jackson has 371 yards through the air on the season. Levi Johnson leads the team in rushing with 302 yards while Jackson has 226 yards on the ground and 72 receiving yards. Jaxton Helton and Ben Campbell are both over 100 yards receiving on the season.

The Vikings have endured a pair of tough outings against Putnam County teams, being outscored 111-0 between outings against South Putnam and North Putnam in the past two weeks.

The absence of Jacob Dewey has hurt West Vigo’s run game to the point the Vikings have moved from their double wing set into an I-formation and worked out of the spread against the Cougars.

Much of the workload has been laid on Ryan Cobb (370 yards), Connor Wallace (233 yards) and Chase Hedden (194 yards) as the passing game has been nonexistent in recent weeks, though expect Hedden to test a Clover secondary that was hit for 342 yards by Greencastle last week.

North Putnam will look to add a win to its 2-5 record with Brown County visiting Friday.

Much like West Vigo, the Eagles have been run roughshod by Putnam County teams the past two weeks as Greencastle and South Putnam have won by a combined 150-0.

The Cougars have been successful in recent weeks thanks to a balanced attack that has seen the running and passing game totals both at or near 200 yards each, keeping opposing defenses off balance.

Christian Kramer has thrown for 1,387 yards through seven games and continues to lead the team in rushing with 709 yards.

The three primary rushers behind Kramer, Wes Murphy, Braden Glaze and Caiden Hankins, were joined by Brogan Woodall, who had 128 yards rushing against the Vikings, giving the team four rushers over 150 yards to balance out Kramer’s team-leading total. Woodall is the leading receiver (482 yards) with Murphy not far behind (412 yards).

Hankins leads the defense out of the linebacker spot with 67 tackles while the Cougars have balance at all three levels with Murphy leading the secondary with 48 tackles and Jayden Laffin recording 45 tackles on the front line.

Brown County’s running game was thrown for a loop by South Putnam to the tune of -43 yards on the ground, though the blue and yellow Eagles can still get yards through the air as Noah Lucas has completed 15 passes for around 100 yards between the games against Greencastle and South Putnam, Westin Fulford and Landon Scott being the two primary recipients.

Another all-Eagle matchup this weekend will see South Putnam take on Heritage Christian for a fourth time in the last five seasons.

South Putnam has won two of the three previous meetings, including a thumping 49-20 win on the road last year in which the team ran for 367 yards and generally dominated the line of scrimmage on offense.

Wyatt Mullin sits below the 1,500-yard mark for the season in the passing game at 1,488 yards but hasn’t needed to work much past the first half the last few weeks.

Kolby Harcourt leads the ground game with 564 yards but, like Mullin, who has 410 yards on the ground, hasn’t been called on as often the past two weeks with just 12 carries, five of them going for scores.

Bransyn Hanley has become the go-to receiver for South Putnam with 490 yards and seven touchdowns, five of those scores coming in the last three weeks. Wyatt Switzer, Zach Dorsett and Drew Hill all have over 200 yards receiving on the season.

Aiden Beadles has reached the 100-tackle mark for a second season in a row, sitting at 107 through seven games, while the South Putnam secondary has 15 interceptions for the season, led by Caiden Switzer with six.

Heritage Christian also brings a balanced attack to the table as 6’3” sophomore Eli Nix has plenty of arm strength and is not afraid to sling it across or down the field, throwing for 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns, though also has eight interceptions on the year,

Nix’s favorite target out of the spread is fellow sophomore Andrew Sloan (343 yards) while also hitting Isaac Jones for around 200 yards and freshman Noah Dearman for 170 yards.

A third sophomore, Elijah Pimental, has 913 yards and eight scores on the ground to balance out the passing attack while Vaughn Johnson has 264 yards on the ground and five scores.

Heritage Christian crowds the box on defense with four men on the front line with the linebacking corps also in close proximity.

Collin Jones leads the team with 69 tackles, 19 for loss and eight sacks while Tyler Marsh has added another 58 tackles, eight for loss and five sacks. Isaac Nelson leads the secondary with 46 tackles with a pair of interceptions.