When the scoreboard hits zero Friday night, we will be a third of the way through the high school football season in Putnam County.
Heading into tomorrow night, Greencastle and North Putnam are looking for its first win of the season, Cloverdale is looking to put together a win streak and South Putnam is flying high at 2-0.
Cloverdale heads to Brown County, Greencastle entertains West Vigo, and North Putnam rolls out the red carpet for South Putnam.
Here's a look at all three matchups.
Brown County (0-2) vs. Cloverdale (1-1), 7 p.m., Hill Field
After securing its first win of the season last week against Edinburgh, Cloverdale and head coach Tyler Lotz look to pick up another win this week when they travel to Brown County.
The Clovers picked up a 20-6 win over Edinburgh last week, and Lotz admits he saw some good things from his team, but also some things that still need to be cleaned up.
"We have to clean up missed tackles. Our offensive line did better and sealed the deal for us as we were able to run clock and the football. We were able to run the ball extremely well," Lotz said during the Coaches Corner on WREB.
Quarterback Tate Jackson rushed for over 100 yards, as Cloverdale adapted well during the week to changes in practice due to the heat.
"We moved practices to the evenings and the kids handled it well. We had guys there every night working. Our leadership has gotten better since week one," Lotz said.
As was the case against Edinburgh, Lotz hopes he can utilize his team's numbers and full platoon to their benefit against Brown County, who fell 60-0 to Jennings County.
"This is another week where we play a team that has 25, 26 guys and we should be able to use our numbers to our advantage. We are at full platoon and we subbed a lot of guys defensively last week," Lotz said.
One thing the Clovers will focus on is dealing with success.
"Last year we got our first win and our seniors got their first win and it went to their head. We addressed it right away and we don't want to be satisfied. We don't believe we are close to there yet. We need to keep working hard and growing," Lotz said.
Greencastle (0-2) vs. West Vigo (0-2), 7 p.m., Harbison Stadium
Football is a game of two halves, and Greencastle found that out last week.
After rolling to a 21-17 halftime lead and overcoming adversity early on, the Tiger Cubs found themselves on the short end of the scoreboard, suffering a 43-21 setback against Northview.
"We had some really good things at the beginning of the game. Defense made some huge stops. I'm happy with how the guys battled. They do a good job mixing up coverages and fronts, and I thought our guys did a pretty good job handling. We were not able to stay consistent on drives. It was a two point game, 23-21, going into the fourth and we had the touchdown called back. We ran out of gas," Greencastle head coach Dave Stephens said.
Coming into the contest, Greencastle had dealt with illness, and Stephens admits it took its toll.
"Illness went through our team really bad. We ran out of energy and bodies in the second half," Stephens said.
Despite being 0-2, Greencastle has had chances this season, as Stephens notes the transition and learning new offensive and defensive schemes continues.
"We are teaching plays and how we go about football. We went from grinding it out to spreading it around and basketball on grass on offense. What matters is at the end, not the beginning. I am happy with -- what we've had available -- the growth of our team the first two weeks," Stephens said.
When it comes to West Vigo, Stephens acknowledged it will be "nice to be home."
"We have things we want to get better at. Coach Clements is a good coach, and I have a lot of respect for him. We'll have our hands full. We have to prove to ourselves we can do a better job of holding up against heavy run teams and putting them in situations where they're behind the sticks," Stephens said.
North Putnam (0-2) vs. South Putnam (2-0), 7 p.m., Cougar Stadium
WREB GIANT fm Game of the Week, Pregame 6:40
South Putnam coach Chuck Sorrel doesn't need any reminders of how big and important the rivalry is with North Putnam.
"So far, my one loss in the county is to North Putnam. It's a place I make sure we're going to be ready to play," Sorrel said.
At 2-0 with a high flying rushing attack on offense and a defense that held Owen Valley to 11 yards rushing last week and is allowing an average of 3 points per game, South Putnam is off to a strong start that Sorrel traces back to the work put in during the summer.
"We get after it in the summer. Who we play is pretty good," Sorrel said.
As the season is underway, Sorrel hangs his hat on his team's defense, which is led by Aiden Beadle.
"We're pretty good on defense. I'd put our front six or seven up against anyone in A or 2A. Our offensive line has gelled together. We've got some special guys on offense," said Sorrel, who admitted he made some personnel changes last week on the offensive line that paid off nicely.
Last week, the Eagles knocked off Owen Valley, 46-6, as there was balance on the offensive side as South Putnam threw for 165 yards and rushed for another 175.
North Putnam, on the other hand, suffered a 56-33 loss to Southmont. While his team is 0-2, head coach Scott Moore said he has seen positives.
"We have shown signs of what we want to become and that we can play good football against quality opponents. Our defense played well both games, we just have to limit big plays and get off the field on third and fourth downs to not allow drives to continue or give up scores on those downs. Last week we came out really sharp on both sides of the ball, we just have to learn to continue to play at a high level of focus and intensity, because when playing big games if we let up for a second they will take advantage and that is what happened last friday. That will come with more and more experience with our young team. We have some good skilled players and our quarterback's ability to run the football this year has been big for us. Our offensive line has to continue to improve and defensively, we have to make big plays when our number is called. We know what we are doing and know the system, just have to put it together for an entire series more consistently," Moore said.
Despite the fact the Cougars are 0-2, Sorrel knows his team will be in for a fight.
"I've heard their quarterback is good. He played well against us last year. We are stingy on the run, and if we can keep stopping the run that'll help. We'll see what they have in store. They're tough to beat and it's a tough place to play. I don't want to go over there and put offense in a bad situation or have costly turnovers that hurt our defense," Sorrel said.
Moore echoed those sentiments, saying South Putnam is a "very good football team."
"They have athletes everywhere on both sides of the ball and their program is in a good place. We know that we will have to be at the top of our game and we hope to compete for four quarters and give ourselves opportunities to make big plays in all three phases of the game," Moore said.
