FOOTBALL: Cougars hold off Mounties late 28-26

Cameron Giles had a big night for the Mounties with four scores.

Southmont sophomore quarterback Trent Jones tossed a pair of touchdowns in the Mountie's 28-26 loss to North Putnam.

Posted Friday, August 30, 2019 8:07 pm

Jared McMurry | jmcmurry@jrpress.com

ROACHDALE — Southmont found themselves in a two-score hole early, battled back, and fell just short in a 28-26 loss at North Putnam on Friday.

Trailing 28-20, the Mounties (1-1) took over and marched right down the field in 2:21, capping a 77-yard drive with a Cameron Giles six-yard touchdown run to make it 28-26 Cougars (1-1) with 1:12 to play. Quarterback Trent Jones rolled out left on the two-point conversion, but there was nowhere to go, and a failed desperation drive in the final seconds sealed Southmont’s fate.

The Cougars jumped out to a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter after a pair of Maverick Summers passing touchdowns — one to Mason Brooks, and another to Lucius Alexander.

Southmont responded with a 50-yard swing pass from Jones to Giles to make it 14-7 at the half, but on paper it was all Cougars.

North Putnam out-gained Southmont 188-87 in the first half.

The second half was played more even, but just as Southmont looked to be back in it, the Cougars answered right back. An Aidan Baker score made it 21-7 at the end of the third, before Giles responded with a 3-yard run. Summers later hit Scott Proctor midway through the fourth quarter to put North Putnam up 28-14, and send Southmont into panic mode. The Mounties responded with another touchdown from Giles, but the kick failed, leading to the two-point conversion attempt on the final score of the game.

Cougars Balance

After a dominate passing performance in North Putnam’s 21-20 win over North Montgomery last week, the Cougars were much more balanced in the first half against the Mounties.

Baker ran for 71 first half yards, while Summers threw for 110.

“North Putnam had a great game plan,” Southmont coach Desson Hannum said. “We knew they were pretty much a zone blocking team. We really thought they threw the ball well against North Montgomery, and something we thought we were going to have to stop. I thought our secondary got a test tonight, and for the most part we were able to hold up. I thought that our front again did pretty well and we did OK against the run. Again I can’t slight our defense. We played alright defensively, we’ve just got to give our defense a break.”

Baker tallied 153 yards on 35 carries for the game, while Summers threw for 229 yards and three scores.

Big Night For Giles

Giles was the go-to player offensively for the Mounties. The senior crossed the century mark on the ground, caught three balls for 70 yards, and scored all four Southmont touchdowns.

Second Half Mounties

After an offensive struggle in the first half, Southmont responded in the second half with 240 yards.

“We just had to find something that we could hang our hat on,” Hannum said. “We’ve got to get back to really running our option well. Doing a good job of getting a good push off the line, our quarterback has to read it correctly, and then our halfbacks have to get their blocking assignments. “We’ve got to find that identity as a football team. We were able to get a couple big ones in the passing game tonight that were able to save us a couple different times, and I was really happy with the way we responded to the whole situation. We played extremely hard.”

Jones Growing In Offense

Jones looked much more comfortable in the second half guiding the Mountie’s offense after throwing a pair of first half interceptions.

In the second half he connected on 6-of-9 passes for 105 yards and score, including a 46-yard strike to Ty Welliever on fourth and long that led to a score just a few plays later.

“One thing that we talked about is you’ve got to want to be the quarterback,” Hannum said about his QB. “And to be a quarterback in our offense, you have the keys to the car. And it can either be a Ferrari or a Pinto, and I think Trent can make this offense go. Once he gets it and that light-bulb clicks, he’s going to be electric out there. Our team is really able to gain a lot of confidence when he’s playing with confidence.”

North Putnam will host South Putnam next week, while Southmont travels to North Montgomery.

North Putnam 28, Southmont 26

NP 7 7 7 7 — 28

SM 0 7 0 19 — 26

Scoring

1st Quarter:

NP — Brooks 10 yard pass from Summers (PAT), 3:27

2nd Quarter:

NP — Alexander 6 yard pass from Summers (PAT), 7:50

SM — Giles 50 yard pass from Jones (PAT, 6:12

3rd Quarter:

NP — Bakers 2 yard run (PAT), :57