Tiger Cubs make statement in rout of Cougars

Greencastle's Trevin Long races through the North Putnam defense during Friday night's season finale. The Tiger Cub offense showed off some of the destructive power it had at its disposal with Long catching three passes for 97 yards and a score in a 49-28 win over the Cougars.

Banner Graphic/JARED JERNAGAN

BAINBRIDGE – Greencastle saved its best performance of the 2024 season for when it mattered most.

The Tiger Cubs have had a turbulent season, but knew its best games were ahead of them.

That started Friday when they made the short trip to take on county rival North Putnam and had the throttle turned all the way up in what ended in a dominating 49-28 win over the Cougars as the Tiger Cubs picked up a statement win.

It was the high-octane, electric aerial attack led by Cole Stephens that was the story of the game for the Tiger Cubs.

All four of Stephens’ touchdowns were at least 59 yards or longer. The sophomore ended the game with throws of 59, 65, 73 and 75 yards as the Cougar defense simply had no answer.

Stephens completed just 11 passes on the night, going 11-of-20, but threw for 317 yards.

On the defensive side, the Tiger Cubs saw the return of both Brayden Monroe and Cam Pingleton on the defensive side of the ball. The Tiger Cub front line made life difficult for the Cougars all night long and were constantly in the backfield getting tackles for loss or swatting down passes.

“We dominated the game on both sides of the ball I thought,” Tiger Cub coach Dave Stephens said. “North Putnam has a really explosive offense and (Christian) Kramer is a dynamic player, but I believe in our guys, our coaches and our system.

"I knew once we got healthy, we had something. Things are certainly looking up for the Tiger Cubs right now after tonight.”

While it was the passing game that got the Tiger Cubs the lead, it was the ground game that sealed the win and continued to take precious time away from the Cougars who needed stops, but just couldn’t get them.

Parker Welker, who is listed at 6’2” and 230 pounds, bulldozed his way to 150 yards on the ground, with a majority of that coming in the second-half. Cayden Blodgett added 63 yards and the Tiger Cubs ended the game with 272 yards on the ground.

Add 317 yards through the air and Greencastle tallied 589 total yards of offense in its regular season finale.

“We felt like in some of our personnel sets that we didn’t have the right kind of speed that we wanted and made some changes,” Stephens said. “We moved Ian (Williamson) to tight-end and Trevin (Long) to the X-receiver.

“When those guys got open and you have a player like Cole Stephens throwing the football, that’s a dangerous combo for any team to guard. We just were able to run the ball when we needed to and passed it when we needed also.

“To me that’s the definition of being a balanced offense,” Stephens added. “We knew we had to run the ball and keep Kramer off the field.”

North Putnam (7-2) didn’t go down without a fight on the offensive side of the ball.

Kramer ran the ball 21 times for 217 yards and three touchdowns, including a 73-yard score to cut the Tiger Cub lead to 28-14 in the third quarter.

The Cougars ended the night with 459 yards of their own on offense as the two teams ended the game with 1,048 yards of offense.

Cougar coach Scott Moore put it simply after his team suffered the tough defeat.

“We saw on film they were capable of making big plays,” Moore said. “They were the better team and were just more physical than we were on both sides of the ball.”

The Tiger Cubs see a grueling regular season slate come to an end as they sit at 3-6 on the season after the big win. They will now prepare for Class 2A Sectional No. 39 next Friday when they have to make the long trek to take on Pike Central.

“We like our draw for the sectional, but I want our guys to take time to appreciate that this group went through an absolute gauntlet in the regular season,” Stephens said. “There’s six teams on our schedule that I think could play for a sectional title and our opponents record is 44-19 on the year.”

“We’re excited about where we’re headed going into the postseason. We feel like with our draw and with us getting healthy at the right time, we have a second chance to make this season special and be the team we thought we were going to be headed into the year.”

North Putnam will have their hands full next week when they open up the Class 2A Sectional No. 34 tournament at home against the 7-2 Western Boone Stars.  

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter

GC: Cayden Blodgett 2-yard run, XP Good, 5:44, 0-7

2nd Quarter

GC: Anthony Adams 73-yard pass from Cole Stephens, XP Good, 9:44, 0-14

GC: Ian Williamson 75-yard pass from Cole Stephens, XP Good, 8:24, 0-21

NP: Christian Kramer 8-yard run, XP Good, 6:22, 7-21

GC: Trevin Long 59-yard pass from Cole Stephens, XP Good, 5:23, 7-28

3rd Quarter

NP: Christian Kramer 73-yard run, XP Good, 3:57, 14-28

GC: Anthony Adams 65-yard pass from Cole Stephens, 3:37, 14-35

GC: Cayden Blodgett 1-yard run, XP Good, 39.8, 14-42

4th Quarter

NP: Christian Kramer 14-yard run, XP Good, 10:54, 21-42

GC: Parker Welker 1-yard run, XP Good, 2:40 21-49

NP: Paxton O’Brien 46-yard pass from Christian Kramer, XP Good, 1:40, 28-49

Team Stats

Individual Stats

Rushing: Greencastle (Parker Welker 23-150 TD, Cayden Blodgett 12-63 2 TD, Cole Stephens 4-36, Ian Williamson 2-14, Brayden Monroe 1-7, Cam Pingleton 1-2; Total 43-272); North Putnam (Christian Kramer 21-217 3TD, Wes Murphy 10-20, Griffin Starr 1-8, Caiden Hankins 1-3; Totals 33-248)

Receiving: Greencastle (Anthony Adams 4-141 2TD, Trevin Long 3-97 TD, Ian Williamson 1-75 TD, Bryceton Nunn 1-5, Kaiden Brenner 1-(-2)); North Putnam (Wes Murphy 6-61, Griffin Starr 5-61, Paxton O’Brien 1-46 TD, Peyton Barber 1-43)

Passing: Greencastle (Cole Stephens 11-20 317 4TD); North Putnam (Christian Kramer 12-28 168 TD INT, Griffin Starr 1-1 43)