Football Friday: Cougars, Eagles clash in first major WIC battle; Tiger Cubs look to bounce back against Vikings; Clovers look to clip wings of unbeaten Brown County

A clash of the top contenders in the WIC Small School Division will take place Friday night as North Putnam travels to South Putnam looking to stake a claim to a WIC football title before exiting the conference at the end of the school year.

Elsewhere, Greencastle makes the second of its three road trips this season with the goal of getting a win and, more importantly, building momentum ahead of a tough homestand while Cloverdale meets a 2-0 Brown County team that is vying with the Clovers to be named among the most improved teams in the state in 2024.

The Cougars’ 32-27 win over Southmont was a major moment for the program, completing a sweep over the Montgomery County duo of the Mounties and North Montgomery for the first time since 2019.

Christian Kramer threw for 269 yards and added another 144 on the ground, scoring three times in the fourth quarter, to rally North Putnam for the win. Kramer has more than 60 carries in two games, accounting for two-thirds of the total carries for the Cougars this season.

North Putnam’s defense was put in a bad spot for two scores against Southmont and surrendered a long touchdown pass but also kept the Mounties out of the endzone on several long drives and got a key turnover late in the game Saturday to set up the winning touchdown.

South Putnam was on the wrong end of the battle of the No. 1s with Indianapolis Lutheran but, after falling into a 34-0 hole, did not allow the Saints to score again and found a pair of scores of their own to keep some momentum going into what is one of the key WIC games this year.

Lutheran managed to keep Wyatt Mullin in check as the senior was 21-of-44 for 191 yards with a touchdown and an interception while also limiting South Putnam to 111 rushing yards.

Despite allowing 340 yards to the Saints, the Eagle defense came up with several stops as the game went along, a trait that will need to continue as the team continues to bring along a young secondary and several players getting their first starts on defense.

Greencastle struggled heavily in its loss to Northview on Saturday as 11 penalties and a defense that allowed four fourth down conversions, along with a fifth by a penalty, saw the Tiger Cubs run over by the Knights to fall to 0-2 on the season.

The offense could only muster 155 total yards with a third coming from Cayden Blodgett late on in relief duty. Greencastle was also just 1-of-8 on third downs, further compounding issues against a heavy-handed Northview team that rolled up 354 yards of total offense.

West Vigo comes in after a close 28-26 win over Parke Heritage in which the Vikings ran for 230 yards, getting 125 yards and two scores from Jacob Dewey, while also finding a bit of success in the air as Landon Fields was 8-of-13 for 160 yards with a touchdown and interception.

While still a Wing-T team, West Vigo has modified the look at times to run the formation out of the shotgun as well as under center, adding a bit of creativity to the formation.

The Viking defense, running a 4-3 scheme against Parke Heritage, made one more play than the Wolves Saturday by keeping a game-tying conversion from being completed, though the team was gouged for 198 yards on the ground.

Cloverdale comes into week three after a 62-0 thrashing of Edinburgh but is meeting a Brown County team that is 2-0 to start the season for the first time since 2017.

Landon Duncan threw for 252 yards and six scores against the Lancers and while the Clovers did run for 215 yards, 186 came on two scoring plays.

Defensively, Cloverdale limited Edinburgh to 139 yards of total offense and pitched its first shutout since 2014, allowing just 46 yards on the ground on 29 carries.

The Eagles got three touchdown passes from Noah Lewis in the opener against Owen Valley, a 30-21 win, and another from Lewis, as well as a passing score from Quentin Bell, in the win over the Wolfpack.

Defensively, Brown County gave up 275 yards to Owen Valley on the ground but got key stops and turnovers to hold off the Patriots while the Eagles didn’t give up a score in the half played against Crawford County, a 24-0 win that was called at halftime due to the inclement weather over the weekend.