North Montgomery football is riding high after last week’s 28-14 win over county rival Southmont. The win got Sagamore Conference play started off on the right foot for the Chargers who have high goals this season. Now the focus shifts to week two of SAC play when the 2-1 (1-0 SAC) Chargers make the trip to take on the 0-3 (0-1 SAC) Lebanon Tigers.
Lebanon is coming off a narrow 28-26 loss to Danville in its SAC opener a week ago and overall have struggled offensively this season. In the Tigers three games this year they’ve scored only 29 points. You have to go back to 2015 to find the last time the Chargers bested the Tigers but this North Montgomery team not only has momentum on its side, but a firm belief that they can compete with anyone on its schedule.
“Lebanon is much better than what their record shows,” Charger coach Josh Thompson said of the Tigers. “Our focus this week has been to maintain the same level of focus on energy that we put forth in preparing for South a week ago, to Lebanon this week. They were extremely focused last week and now it’s all about continuing that week after week no matter who we play.”
The Tigers have a new quarterback at the helm in junior Jackson Folden. Folden in three games is 23-59 (39%) for just 182 yards with a single touchdown while throwing two interceptions. On the ground the Tigers will rely on junior Brendan Shockley who has carried the ball 51 times for 290 yards and a TD. Shockley has ran for over 100 yards in two of the three games for Lebanon. Receiving wise for the Tigers they have speed with Kaden Lark and also weapons such as seniors Mason Crew and Dax Frost.
“We’re going to have to make sure we contain their speed,” Thompson said of when prepping for the Tigers. “Our kids know that they’ll likely have the advantage in that area and we have to counter that by using our intelligence and understanding our angles and how plays work.
North through the first three games has been extremely balanced on the offensive end. The Chargers average 167 yards through the air while rushing for 142 on the ground. Senior QB Ross Dyson has shown his dual threat ability by throwing for 502 yards and eight TD’s while already accumulating 49 rushes on the season for 236 yards. North poses a three-headed attack out wide with Roman Utterback (10 catches for 175), Kelby Harwood (8-140), and Jarrod Kirsch (4-113).
“We just try and find the guy that has the hot hand,” Thompson said of the offense. “We have a lot of those skill guys who could be ‘the guy’ on any given night and that gives us plenty of options on offense. Those kids are really buying in to the team aspect that we’re trying to instill and we try to use that to our advantage each game.”
The Chargers are looking for their first 2-0 start to SAC play since 2015. You can catch a live broadcast of the game on 103.9 WIMC beginning at 6:30 as Bob Cox, Kevin Kirsch, and Curt Dyson will have the call from Lebanon.
