LINDEN — North Montgomery had something to prove after suffering its first loss of the 2020 season last week, and it showed in a 42-6 blowout win over Crawfordsville on Friday.
Senior tailback Zak Searle rushed for 199 yards on 12 carries, including four touchdowns — three of which were 44 yards or longer.
The Chargers (5-1, 2-1 SAC) outgained the Athenians 347-32 in the first half, and led 42-0 at the break.
“We got off to a much better start than we have,” Chargers coach Josh Thompson said. “We had a lot more energy, we had excitement and I thought we were up to game speed versus the last couple weeks. We all got better this week and we focused on a goal and it paid off tonight.”
Searle put the Chargers on the board with a 4-yard touchdown run with 9:38 left in the first quarter.
Freshman Austin Sulc intercepted a Kaiden Underwood pass and returned it for a touchdown, Searle added a 54-yard scamper and Donavan Haworth found Logan Kelly from 43-yards out — all in the first quarter.
Searle added 44 and 54-yard touchdown runs in the second quarter.
“They were the more physical team,” Crawfordsville coach Kurt Schlicher said. “We struggled to get anything going on offense.”
Jack Pendleton scored the lone Athenian touchdown on a 3-yard run in the fourth quarter.
Crawfordsville (0-5, 0-3 SAC) had a net of -17 rushing yards, while Kaiden Underwood threw for 115 yards. Andrew Martin led the way with five catches for 93 yards. The Athenians had three turnovers.
The win for the Class 3A No. 10 ranked Chargers secures a second straight winning season and county title.
“I’m extremely proud of these guys,” Thompson said. “They’ve worked hard starting all the way back in March when school was shutdown. They’ve done everything we’ve asked. They had to do work individually, we came in in July and they hit the ground running and they haven’t stopped since. It’s about these guys believing in themselves and buying in to what we are doing and they are seeing it pay off.”
North Montgomery travels to Tri-West on Friday, while Crawfordsville host Lebanon.
North Montgomery 42, Crawfordsville 6
Crawfordsville 0 0 0 6 — 6
N. Montgomery 28 14 0 0 — 42
Scoring
1st quarter
NM Zak Searle 4-yd. run, run failed, 9:38
NM Austin Sulc, 15-yd interception return, Donavan Haworth 2-pt conversion, 8:33
NM Searle 54-yd. run, pass failed, 5:05
NM Logan Kelly, 43-yd pass from Haworth, Searle 2-pt. conversion, 1:25
2nd quarter
NM Searle, 44-yd. run, Nick Norman 2-pt. conversion, 7:40
NM Searle 54-yd. run, run failed, 5:15
4th quarter
CV Jack Pendleton 3-yd. run, run failed, 7:57
Game statistics CV NM
Rushing yds 12- (-17) 36-267
Passing yds 115 92
Total yds 98 359
Fumbles/lost 4/1 2/1
Penalties 6-51 5-50
Individual Statistics
Rushing:
CV: Kaiden Underwood 5(-22), Jack Pendleton 7-6, Kaigen Fields 2-4, Ezekiel Cardenas 3-(-5)
NM: Searle 12-199, Jacob Braun 7-18, Haworth 3-25, Gage Galloway 6-14, Drew Norman 2-(-1), Nick Norman 1-1, Kolton Scrimmager 1-5, Ross Dyson 2-5, Wil Campbell 1-1
Passing:
CV: Underwood 8-19-115, Isaac Rogers 0-1-0
NM: Haworth 6-7-83, D. Norman 0-2-0
Receiving:
CV: Andrew Martin 5-93, Fields 3-22
NM: Kelly 4-80, Gabe Laws 1-(-2), Kolton Scrimmager 1-14
