LINDEN — North Montgomery football after a full summer schedule and a few scrimmages are finally ready to hit the gridiron for real on Friday night. The Chargers begin the 2023 slate at home as they welcome the North Putnam Cougars to town. The last three seasons North Montgomery has beaten the Cougars to begin the year 1-0. Charger coach Josh Thompson notes how his team is looking forward to getting the season underway at home.
“We played hard our scrimmages but also told our guys to play smart,” Thompson said. “Our kids are geared up and ready to play an actual game under the lights that counts in the record book. We know that North Putnam wants to come in here and open up their season pretty good note and so do we. The only thing our kids have talked about this week is how we’re going to beat North Putnam. I think we’re all in a good spot and now it comes down to executing the gameplan on Friday.”
A season ago the Cougars went 4-6 under first year coach Scott Moore. They’ll come into 2023 with a very young team as senior running back Noah Claycomb was the teams workhorse a year ago with 1,606 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns. Claycomb was also the teams second leading receiver with 398 yards and two more scores. Fellow senior and leading receiver Myles Bryan who caught 50 passes for 880 yards and eight TD’s also graduated.
The Cougars do return sophomore Christian Kramer who will man the QB position for the Cougars. Kramer threw for 2,278 yards and 20 touchdowns his freshman year with also 12 interceptions.
Before the opening kick off of the season on Friday at Charger Field, North Montgomery will honor their 13 senior players and two senior managers beginning at 6:30 as it will be senior night for the Chargers.
“We have a lot of great players and our two senior managers to recognize before the game and it’s great that we’re getting to do that right off the bat,” Thompson said. “Hopefully honoring them before the game will allow us to get off to a good start since we’re at home in front of our fans and parents. Since the start of the summer, our seniors have done a good job of leading this team and that’s been a focus for us the last few years is trying to not only better football players but better leaders as well. This group has matured very well over the last three years and now we hope they’ll lead us to a win on Friday.”
Kickoff between the Cougars and Chargers is scheduled for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on WIMC Thunder 103.9 as Jared McMurry and Codey Emerson will have the call in the Chargers season opener.
