North Montgomery football once again has bragging right over Montgomery County. Friday night the Chargers made the short trip to Crawfordsville and spoiled the Athenians homecoming. The North Montgomery ground game in all facets as the Chargers churned out a season high 350 rushing yards en route to a 42-14 county championship clinching win.
North got the ball to start and immediately went three and out, but on Crawfordsville’s first drive Kelby Harwood recorded one of four North Montgomery interceptions on the night to set up the Charger offense in prime scoring position. Austin Sulc got the Chargers on the board with a nine-yard run. Then on Cville’s next drive Kaden Patton would be intercepted again. The Cville defense stepped up and forced a punt, but the offense stalled out. Ross Dyson scored the second TD of the game to make it 15-0 after the two point attempt.
Ethan McLemore got Crawfordsville on the board with a leaping nine yard score to begin the second quarter but the Athenian offense just was un-able to find the end-zone for most of the night despite moving the ball fairly well.
“The kids got out there tonight and were able to bring us home a county title,” Charger coach Josh Thompson said. “These kids work really hard to accomplish that goal. We had some miscues in the first half, but they kept playing and it’s good for them to accomplish that goal.”
It was a frustrating night again for the Athenian offense. They were able to tally 232 total yards in the loss but the turnovers keep plaguing them. Kaden Patton now through six games has thrown 16 interceptions through the teams first six teams. It’s something that Cville coach Brad Clark knows has to be fixed.
“The turnover battle always plays a big battle in who wins and loses football games,” he said. “The team that takes care of the football usually comes out on top and we were able to move the ball tonight, just had some untimely turnovers. North was able to capitalize off of them and hats off to them.”
North Montgomery (4-2, 3-1 SAC) was able to utilize many different people in its heavy ground attack. Dyson carried the ball 15 times for 118 yards and three touchdowns, Sulc added 121 yards on just eight carries and a pair of scores. Noah Hopkins had 59 yards on eight carries with Roman Utterback having 27 yards and Jayden Thompson ending with 25. Thompson not only credited his offensive line for the way they created holes, but also his skill players on the out-side for their dedication to holding their blocks as well.
“One of the things we’re a lot better at this year is our skill guys are doing their jobs a lot better. We run a lot of option stuff and our guys are carrying out their fakes. Sometimes you can block somebody by just how you carry out your fakes. When they’ve been able to do that as well as they have been this year, it opens up a lot of stuff we can do. Everyone is running hard when they get the ball and selling it when they’re not.”
On the flip side for Crawfordsville (0-6, 0-4 SAC), they just had 24 yards rushing in the loss. The big blow came from the Charger defensive front putting pressure on Patton the entire night and coming down with numerous sacks. Patton finished with -34 yards rushing. A bright spot for CHS was the presence of Anthony Lee who ran for 50 yards on 14 carries.
“I’m going to tell Anthony that’s the hardest I’ve seen him run,” Clark said. “He did a great job of getting down hill and being physical. He was sticking his foot in the ground and doing a great job for us. I think we probably went to the ground game a little too late. We need to have a better balance early and I’ll do a much better job of that moving forward.”
The rugged Sagamore Conference does neither team any favors next Friday night. The Chargers will welcome the top team in the conference in the 5-1 (4-0) Tri-West Bruins. Crawfordsville will hit the road for a matchup with 2-4 (2-2) Lebanon.
