LINDEN — North Montgomery and Danville played toe-to-toe on a wet Charger field Friday. However, it was Danville’s offense that found enough points to win the Sagamore Conference game 10-0.
Danville ranked No. 3 in 3A scored the only first half points when Warrior placekicker Caleb Harvey kicked a 26-yard field goal. Their second score came on a 10-play 53-yard drive capped off with a fourth down 15-yard scoring pass from quarterback Kale Payne to Tyler Dotson with 9:54 left in the game.
North Montgomery coach Josh Thompson was pleased with his team’s performance against the high powered offense of Danville (8-1, 7-0 SAC). He said the effort his team put forth had not been the same against some of the other top tier conference teams.
“I am very proud of our kids tonight,” Thompson said. “We played hard and had the right attitude for the whole game which was not the case in some of our other games.”
Danville was able to produce some offense in the first half against the stingy defense. However, the Charger defense was able to get the Warriors to either punt or go for several fourth down attempts to keep the ball. North Montgomery on two occasions stopped Danville in the red zone on fourth down in the first half and two other times inside the Charger 30-yard line.
“I thought our defense did a good job of containing Danville and we came up with several big stops to get the ball back,” Thompson said.
While the Charger defense held their own against Danville who averages 32 points-per-game, the North offense never was able to get going.
The Chargers were held to 65 yards of total offense which included minus 16-yards in the first half. For the game North Montgomery only recorded four first downs.
“We struggled offensively against a very talented Danville team,” Thompson said. “But we never gave up and kept fighting.”
North Montgomery did a yeoman’s job against Danville quarterback Kale Payne who has thrown for nearly 1,500 yards this season. The senior only connected on 5-of-11 passes for a season low 38 yards.
Struggling to pass the ball, Danville came out in the second half running the ball. In the game Danville recorded 15 first downs and 11 were by the rush.
Danville senior Cadyn Madding was the leading rusher in the game with 122 yards on 25 carries.
North Montgomery will entertain Yorktown next Friday in the opening round of the sectional. The game will start at 7:30 p.m.
The Warriors, who were 3A state runner-up last year, starts their drive back to Lucas Oil Stadium by playing Greencastle at home.
