Cougars complete Montgomery County sweep with win over Athenians

North Putnam's Griffen Starr (right) hauled in four passes for 50 yards and added a 12-yard touchdown run in the Cougars' 57-21 win over Crawfordsville Friday night.

For the Banner Graphic/SUSAN EHRLICH

BAINBRIDGE – North Putnam football might not be in Montgomery County, but the Cougars can call themselves champions of the county up north after Friday night.

The Cougars welcomed the Crawfordsville Athenians, and while the visitors gave the Cougars a very competitive first half, trailing 22-14 at the break, the second half belonged to the hosts, who stayed undefeated (4-0) on the season with a 57-21 win and now own wins over all three Montgomery County schools in North Montgomery, Southmont and Crawfordsville.

Crawfordsville (2-2) had no answers for the ground-and-pound style of the Cougars as the combination of a stout offensive line and the duo of juniors Christian Kramer and Wes Murphy were too much for the Athenians to handle.

Kramer tallied 202 yards through the air and 110 more on the ground while Murphy ran for 133 yards and four scores while adding 36 more yards receiving.

The Athenians entered the locker room with momentum as Mason McCarty scrambled up the right sideline and stayed in bounds on his way to the longest play of the game, a 67-yard touchdown with just 23.3 seconds to go in the first half.

In the second half, the Cougars went with tempo and their ground game got nearly whatever it wanted, while the Crawfordsville offense failed to sustain many drives. North Putnam scored a touchdown on every single possession in the second half.

“We wanted to be more aggressive, play at a faster pace in that second half and we did a great job of doing that,” Cougar head coach Scott Moore said. “Give Crawfordsville credit, they’ve improved and matched our physicality in the first half. We told our guys to just keep their poise about them and I’m proud of them for doing just that.”

Crawfordsville coach Brad Clark talked about the big difference between his team's play in the first half compared to when it got outscored 35-7 in the final two quarters.

“We started off the game great for the most part which is a reverse of what we’ve done the last few weeks,” Clark said. “We felt good going into the second half getting that score and then getting the ball to begin to start.

“As the game went on, (North Putnam) wore us down. We stopped tackling well and doing the things that we needed to do to be successful.”

The Athenians did tally 256 total yards in the loss with 163 coming on the ground and McCarty throwing for 93 of his own. The junior signal caller accounted for 191 total yards.

Maddox Ronco led the visitors with five catches for 79 yards including a big 55-yard catch and run to set up a score.

North Putnam is starting to make some noise and it’s not just in Cougar-land. This is a team that knows it can belong with any team on Friday night. Being 4-0, North Putnam knows it still has its biggest goals ahead.

“We’re only getting better as the season progresses,” Moore said. “I’m super happy and proud with this start that we’re off to. We’ve put in a lot of work to get to this point, and we talked all off-season about how we had the opportunity to do some special things.

“Our team chemistry and leadership is much better than it has been in years past. We have to sustain this throughout the middle part of the season and as we get ready for the tournament.”

The Cougars will welcome county and conference foe Cloverdale (3-1) next week as they look to remain unbeaten in 2024.

Scoring

1st Quarter

NP: Wes Murphy 9 yd run, XP Good; 9:04, 7-0

CHS: Braeden Hites 1 yd run, XP Good; 3:00, 7-7

2nd Quarter

NP: Christian Kramer 1 yd run, 2 pt conversion Good; 8:59,15-7

NP: Griffin Starr 12 yd run, XP Good; 2:37, 22-7

CHS: Mason McCarty 67 yd run, XP Good; 0:23.3, 22-14

3rd Quarter

NP: Wes Murphy 4 yd run, XP Good; 8:45, 29-14

NP: Caiden Hankins 9 yd run, XP Good; 5:46, 36-14

CHS: Daniel Surface 1 yd run, XP Good; 4:29, 36-21

NP: Wes Murphy 8 yd run, XP Good; 0:49.8, 43-21

4th Quarter

NP Wes Murphy 4 yd run, XP Good, 7:53, 50-21

NP: Owen Thurman 19 yd run, XP Good, 3:05; 57-21

Team Stats

Individual Stats

Rushing: NP (Christian Kramer 15-110 TD, Wes Murphy 18-133 4 TD, Griffin Starr 1-12 TD, Caiden Hankins 2-17 TD, Liam Sullivan 3-16, Owen Thurman 3-13 TD, Team 1-(-17); CHS (Mason McCarty 11-98 TD, Braeden Hites 14-34 TD, Maddox Ronco 3-29, Danield Surface 2-4 TD, Eli Lolla-Martinez 1-1, Diege Velasco-Valencia 1(-3)

Receiving: NP (Griffin Starr 4-50, Wes Murphy 5-36, Kaden Helderman 2-43, Chase Barber 3-76); CHS (Maddox Ronco 5-79, Landon Gerold 2-14)

Passing: NP (Christian Kramer 13-17 202 ydS, Owen Thurman 1-1 3 yds); CHS (Mason McCarty 7-14 93 yds)