North Montgomery senior quarterback looks down field in the Chargers' sectional win over Crawfordsville.
Despite fumbling away the ball on their first two possessions, North Montgomery left little doubt about who would advance in sectional play against country rival Crawfordsville on Friday night. Using a balanced offensive attach and a stingy defense, North Montgomery defeated the Athenians 49-12.
Charger coach Josh Thompson said he was not happy with the early turnovers, but he thought his team rebounded well by scoring on five of their next six possessions.
“I thought our blocking was pretty good tonight and sustained our blocks well,” Thompson said. “I thought the blocking is what gave us the big plays.”
Once North Montgomery (6-4) started rolling, there seemed very little Crawfordsville (1-9) could do to stop the balanced Charger attack which rolled up 479 yards in the game. The visitors racked up 309 yards on the ground and 170 yards passing. North Montgomery did not throw a pass in the second half
For the first time all season, North Montgomery had two rushers gain over 100 yards. Senior Zach Waldon and junior Zak Searle ran for 109 and 101 yards respectively.
Athenian Coach Kurt Schlicher complimented his opponent after the game.
“Tonight was a case that North Montgomery has such a balanced offense that hurt us running to the middle then to the outside. Then a couple mistakes by us turned into big plays for (North Montgomery)”, Schlicher said. “North Montgomery has an excellent team.”
North Montgomery scored 14 points in the first quarter and 26 in the second quarter. Crawfordsville did get on the board with 7:11 in the second quarter when quarterback Cale McCarty found freshman Mikale Willis for a 40-yard scoring strike which made the score 22-6. However Charger senior Kade Kobel returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards to pay dirt just 12 seconds later to squash any Athenian hopes for a comeback.
Kobel scored his fourth touchdown in the first half with a 54-yard pass reception to make the score 42-6 at the break.
North Montgomery’s final score came just with just over two minutes gone in the third quarter when Waldon raced 70 yards down the sideline making the score 49-6.
Crawfordsville was able to score again when junior Jack Pendleton raced 77 yards for a score with 7:15 left in the game.
The Chargers will advance to the second round of the sectional Friday at home against Class 3A No. 1 Indianapolis Chatard.
Thompson said his team needs to play better next week to defeat the Trojans.
“We have to get some things fixed and we cannot give up the big plays on defense,” he said. “When we have the ball we have to hang onto it and we cannot hand the ball over to them.”
Kobel Shines
North Montgomery senior Kade Kobel had his best game of the year. The four-year starter racked up 208 all-purpose yards. He had 33 yards rushing and 90 yards receiving to go along with his 85 yard kickoff return. He also made his presence known with several pass breakups on the Charger defense.
Chargers Stingy Defense
North Montgomery’s starting defense set the tone all night making anything the Athenians did on offense very difficult.
Going into the third quarter, Crawfordsville had only 77 total yards, including minus-14 on the ground.
Schlicher Thanks Seniors
Despite only winning one game, Schlicher complimented his outgoing seniors after the game. The class of 2020 held their own according to their coach.
“It has been an honor to coach these seniors,” Schlicher said. “They have had to go through so much in their careers here at Crawfordsville. We didn’t get the results we wanted on the field, but the kids did not quit.”
North Montgomery 49, Crawfordsville 12
North Montgomery 14 28 7 0 — 49
Crawfordville 0 6 0 6 — 12
Scoring by quarters
1st quarter
NM – Kade Kobel 21 pass from Jaron Bradford, (Carmean pass for two-point conversion from Bradford), 6:06
NM – Kade Kobel 8 yd pass from Bradford (Run failed), 4:48
2nd quarter
NM – Bradford 6-yd. run, (Walden run for two-point conversion), 8:18
CV – Mikale Willis 40-yd pass from Kale McCarty (run failed), 7:11
NM – Kobel 85-yd. kickoff return (Cooper Bowman kick), 6:59
NM – Kobel 9-yd. run (Bowman kick), 2:20
NM – Kobel 54-yd. pass from Bradford (kick failed), :35
3rd quarter
NM – Zach Waldon 70-yd run (Bowman kick), 9:56
4th quarter
CV – Jack Pendleton 77-yd. run (kick failed), 7:15
Team Stats NM CV
Rushing 35-309 14-79
Passing 170 94
Total yards 479 173
Turnovers 2 2
Penalties 4-45 6-50
Individual statistics
Rushing: NM Waldon 6-109, Bradford 7-11, Kobel 4-33, Searle 7-101, Hayward 2-22, Campbell 8-15, Braun 1-7, Galloway 2-1, Gayler 1-4. CV McCarty 5-(-17), Pendleton 9-77, Simmons 1-9, Underwood 1-3
Passing: NM Bradford 11-16-3 170. CV McCarty 6-18-1 94
Receiving: NM Waldon 2-16, Warren 2-34, Kobel 3-90, Carmean 3-30. CV Willis 2-48, Martin 2-33, Fields 1-8, Scott 1-5
