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Cougars fend off Clovers to maintain unbeaten start, WIC lead
BAINBRIDGE — Thanks to persistent inclement weather, North Putnam and Cloverdale finally got the first snap of the game in Saturday evening.
“We knew coming in that Cloverdale is a much-improved team,” North Putnam head coach Scott Moore said. “We didn’t play our best game up front and knew that they might load the box, which they did, and we missed a few things in the passing game.
“Like we’ve done all year, at halftime, we told the guys we needed to keep wearing them down, get stops on defense, which we were able to do and we’re proud of the guys for persevering and winning a football game.”
“We talked in May that the number one thing we wanted to do this year was compete,” Cloverdale head coach Tyler Lotz said. “The kids bought in to that and competed until the very end.
“They’re upset because they’ve worked hard for this. They’re tired of everybody telling them they’ve got better. They want wins and I understand that.
“That said, we told them as a coaching staff we got better tonight because we played a really good football team, competed, saw things we need to improve and saw things we’re good at,” Lotz added. “We want them to keep their heads up, keep playing hard and know some of our goals are still out there in front of us.”
With the kickoff the only play having taken place Friday night, North Putnam started the night at its own 44-yard line and quickly moved into Cloverdale territory.
On the eighth play of the drive, Caiden Hankins rushed for seven yards but coughed up the football at the 20 and Jakob Compton recovered the loose ball for the visitors.
The Clovers responded with an 11-play drive that covered 79 yards and ended with a nine-yard toss sweep to Levi Johnson for a 7-0 lead.
“I’m proud of how the kids showed up on Saturday and came out ready to play,” Lotz said about the start given the delay.
A short kickoff gave the Cougars the chance to start inside Cloverdale territory and the hosts needed four plays to tie the game as Christian Kramer hit Lucas Murphy for 34 yards and, two plays later, connected with Griffen Starr for a 10-yard score.
Johnson nearly lost the ball on the Clovers’ next snap and while he recovered, two plays later Landon Duncan was intercepted by Owen Thurman.
Kramer connected with Starr two plays later, this time a 46-yard screen and run, to put the hosts ahead 14-7 with 17 seconds remaining in the opening quarter.
Following a trade of punts, Cloverdale scored on a screen pass of its own as Duncan got the ball to Tayt Jackson and the senior did the rest, breaking several tackles on the way to a 49-yard score to tie the game at 14-14.
The Cougars went on a 12-play drive in response, reaching the Clover one-yard line but lost yards when Kramer had to come out of the game due to losing his helmet and the hosts settled for a 25-yard Brayden Chew field goal as a result to take a 17-14 lead.
Cloverdale marched down field quickly but a bad handoff fell to the ground and was recovered by North Putnam’s Brody Kinkead.
It was the start of another wild final first half minute at a Cougar football game as Kramer was intercepted two plays later by Artrevion Henderson, only for a Clover flea flicker pass by Jackson to be intercepted by Thurman following a bad snap on the previous play.
“We didn’t give up points this time,” Moore said about another topsy-turvy end to a half. “We talk about being playing well in the middle eight: the last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half.
“We’re starting second halves better. We just need to be better in those final four minutes of the first half.”
“We’ve got to be able to score there and not turn the ball over,” Lotz said about the first turnover. “It was another close loss and those are the kinds of things that can cost you.
“You have to sell out every play and be locked in on your assignment and alignment because an ugly play can rear its head when you least expect it.”
Cloverdale received the second half kickoff and went three-and-out, only for Henderson to pick off Kramer a second time two plays later.
The Clovers could not take advantage of the reprieve and North Putnam capitalized as Kramer brought a high snap down and raced 49 yards for a score to make it 24-14.
The visitors’ offense struggled with the additional pressure being applied by the Cougars and had to punt away again and failed to take advantage of a blocked punt that set them up in home territory, turning the ball over on downs.
“We made some good halftime adjustments, things that are in our system if not in some of the formations to spread (Cloverdale) out a little bit,” Moore said about stretching the field in the second half. “We’re going to watch the film and see some other stuff we could have had but the biggest thing was we came out with another victory.”
North Putnam made it a three-score game on the first play of the fourth quarter after Kramer raced 40 yards for six and a 30-14 lead.
“Christian is a good player and we did a good job of bottling him up in the first half,” Lotz said about Kramer. “In the second half, they spread us out and gashed us a few times.
“It was the story of the second half: every time we needed to get off the field, he gashed us. It’s hard to get back into a game when the defense is out there a lot.”
Cloverdale answered immediately as Johnson broke free up the middle for a 73-yard score to cut the deficit to 30-20.
The Cougars, having been in several tight games late, showed their poise by marching 68 yards in 10 plays, including a critical 15-yard connection between Kramer and Starr on third-and-nine, setting up a 27-yard touchdown pass from Kramer to Kaiden Helderman to restore the three-score lead.
The Clovers swung back again, needing three pass plays of 35, 20 and 10 yards to score as Duncan hit Ben Campbell in the back of the endzone to make it a 37-26 contest.
“It’s huge and down to the leadership of our seniors,” Lotz said about the team not yielding until the end. “Those 14 seniors have bought in to what we’re trying to do and they don’t let the younger guys slack. They’re trying to get the most out of every game we have left.”
But the hosts’ offense was too much to handle at that point as North Putnam ran off the final 4:17 mainly through the legs of Kramer, who opted to run out the clock near the Cloverdale endzone rather than score as the home team moved to 5-0 on the season while the visitors fell to 3-2.
| Cloverdale | 7 | 7 | 0 | 12 | 26 |
| North Putnam | 14 | 3 | 7 | 13 | 37 |
Scoring
1st Quarter
C — Johnson 9-yard run (Jackson kick) 4:07 0-7
NP — Starr 10-yard pass from Kramer (Chew kick) 2:35 7-7
NP — Starr 46-yard pass from Kramer (Chew kick) 0:17 14-7
2nd Quarter
C — Jackson 49-yard pass from Duncan (Jackson kick) 8:29 14-14
NP — Chew 25-yard field goal 3:11 17-14
3rd Quarter
NP — Kramer 49-yard run (Chew kick) 5:00 24-14
4th Quarter
NP — Kramer 40-yard run (XP blocked) 11:52 30-14
C — Johnson 73-yard run (conversion failed) 11:35 30-20
NP — Helderman 27-yard pass from Kramer (Chew kick) 5:32 37-20
C — Campbell 10-yard pass from Duncan (conversion failed) 4:17 37-26
Statistics
| … | Cloverdale | North Putnam |
| Total Offense | 44-343 | 65-504 |
| Rushing | 143 | 220 |
| Passing | 200 | 284 |
| 1st Downs | 10 | 17 |
| 4th Downs | 0-1 | 0-1 |
| Turnovers | 3 | 3 |
| Penalties | 4-20 | 6-50 |
Individual Statistics
Rushing
Cloverdale — 22-143, 2 TD — Johnson 14-133, 2 TD; Jackson 5-19; Henderson 1-1; Duncan 1-(-11)
North Putnam — 40-220, 2 TD — Kramer 27-179, 2 TD; Murphy 10-27; Hankins 2-13; Starr 1-1
Passing
Cloverdale — 15-22-200, 2 TD, 2 INT — Duncan 15-21-200, 2 TD, INT; Jackson 0-1-0, INT
North Putnam — Kramer 17-25-281, 3 TD, 2 INT
Receiving
Cloverdale — Jackson 8-122, TD; Campbell 2-46, TD; Hoffa 2-26; Gardner 2-9; Johnson 1-(-3)
North Putnam — Starr 5-92, 2 TD; Murphy 4-64; O’Brien 3-26; Helderman 2-40, TD; Barber 2-24; Rowe 1-35