LINDEN — Both Crawfordsville and North Montgomery came into Friday’s county matchup with something to prove. In end it was the Chargers who proved that they are still a force to be reckoned with as they dominated the game from the opening kick-off en route to a 44-7 thrashing of their county rival.
The Chargers defense as it has all season was the story of the game as at halftime they held CHS to -3 yards of offense in the first half. The Athenians at the end of the game finished with just 49 total yards.
“If we can put a complete four quarters together like we did tonight I keep telling these kids that we can compete with anyone our schedule,” Charger coach Josh Thompson said. “Our plan going in was to put pressure on their quarterback to give our guys in the secondary some help and our front four did a good job of that. We have experience with those guys and our linebackers and that makes it easier to run the kind of things that feel we need to do to be successful.”
The opening score of the game came when Ross Dyson found Drew Norman for a 12 yd score. Dyson then took the ball into his own hands for the second score early in the second quarter with a 24-yard run. Both Charger 2 pt tries were successful as the homecoming fans saw the go up 16-0. A Jarrod Kirsch pick six and another successful two-point conversion made it 24-0 as time was running low in the second half.
The Athenians got their lone score of the game on a 34 run by Anthony Lee but by then the Chargers had already put a bow on the county win.
“If we want to win games we have to learn to move the ball and begin to put points on the board to take the pressure off our defense,” Crawfordsville coach Brad Clark said. “Hats off to North for how they played defensively. They were able to execute a high level. Playing a physical team is something that our kids should be used to. We’re going to face physical teams the rest of the way and tonight was no different.”
What poised another problem for the Athenian offense was that their leading receiver and third overall in the Sagamore Conference Ethan McLemore left the game in the opening minutes with an ankle injury and didn’t play the rest of the game.
“Losing a guy like E-Mac is a blow, but at the same time we can’t just rely on one player to move the ball,” Clark said. “If that’s the case we’re not going to be very good. We have to find a way to get other guys involved and I didn’t do a good job of that tonight.”
Offensively North Montgomery used a balanced attack (160 rushing and 146 passing) to keep the Athenian defense on its heels. The success through the air is something that Thompson was happy to see his team be able to accomplish.
“We did a much better job through the air tonight,” Thompson said. “Our passes were accurate to our receivers and then they did a good job of catching the ball when it came their way. We’ve had some issues with drops and passes not being totally accurate. I thought our passing game was able to open up the run the game and we played good complimentary football.”
Crawfordsville falls to 2-4 (0-4 SAC) with the loss and they will return home next week when they take on Lebanon who came away with a major SAC upset over Tri-West.
North Montgomery improves to 3-3 (1-3 SAC) and will make the trip to Lizton to battle those same Bruins next week.
