A look at area mathcups tonight including our GIANT fm WREB broadcast, Greencastle vs Cloverdale and North Putnam vs West Vigo.

Greencastle set to square off against Cloverdale

At 4-2, Greencastle head football coach David Stephens has been pleased with what he has seen out of his Tiger Cubs in his first season at the helm.

However, with the regular season entering the final third of the season this Friday against county foe Cloverdale (2-4), Stephens knows his team must continue to make strides and improve if it is going to contend in the Class 2A playoffs in a few weeks. 

A week ago, Greencastle upended Brown County, 84-0, on the road as quarterback Cole Stephens was 23-of-26 for 572 yards and 10 touchdowns. 

"At some point, these defensive coordinators strategy is going to be quit loading the box and play the pass. Until then, we will continue to air it out," Stephens said. 

Stephens said the goals for the Tiger Cubs remain the same. 

"Same as always -- be process focused. We can't control which teams are on our schedule, good or bad. We have to focus on ourselves and what we need to do to improve individually and as a team," Stephens said. 

At 4-2, Stephens admits he likes where his team is, but admits he is not satisfied. 

"We feel like our record should be better, but it is what it is. We are in the driver seat in the county and the conference. I think we have a wide open sectional and can be competitive. We need to improve in all three phases of the game," Stephens said. 

Cloverdale, on the other hand, enters at 2-4 and on a three game losing streak, having lost last week at South Decatur, 27-13. 

In the loss to South Decatur, Cloverdale gave up 375 yards and four touchdowns on 26 touches to Corbin Johnson. 

Stephens said Cloverdale is a tough team. 

"They are spread on offense and 4-4 cover one on defense. They have a dynamic quarterback," Stephens said. 

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and coverage begins on WREB GIANT fm at 6:40 p.m. Friday. 

North Putnam looks to bounce back

While the North Putnam Cougars stand at 1-5 heading into the final third of the regular season, football coach Scott Moore believes his team is improving each week. 

"We feel that we are improving each week. We will always have things to work on, but a lot of our young guys who are playing are starting to get a better feel for the game. We know the record may not show it, but over the last three games, we have had a lot of positive things on the offensive side of the ball. We lost a one score game to a good Covenant Christian team, played well to get up on Cloverdale, and had every opportunity to beat Cascade in a back and forth game where we took the lead in the fourth quarter and had many opportunities to come out on top," Moore told The Putnam County Post. 

Leading the way for the offense has been sophomore quarterback Christian Kramer, who was 23-of-28 for 274 yards and three touchdowns through the air and added another 101 yards and three touchdowns on the ground for the Cougars. 

With the Cougars slated to play at West Vigo (1-5) tomorrow night, Moore wants to see his defense play better. 

"Defensively we have to cut out big plays, we can not bail teams out when we have them in third and long and fourth down.  Giving up a kickoff return and a strip fumble on top of some big chunk plays was the difference in last Friday's game and you can not do those things when playing good opponents," Moore said.

West Vigo lost 63-0 last week to South Putnam and lost 56-18 earlier this season to Greencastle. 

Moore said North Putnam will have to be "sound on both sides of the ball" against the Vikings. 

" They have some big guys up front and some good skilled position players and we need to be ready to play.  Offensively, we need to keep executing and cut down on negative plays to put us behind the sticks.  We have found good balance in our rushing and passing attack and we will continue to take what the defense is giving us and whomever's name is called to make plays, needs to be ready to make them.  We have talked all week about staying mentally focused and ensuring our success with how we prepare.  We hope to put forth a great effort and as in any Friday night, give ourselves opportunities to win a football game," Moore said. 

Get the most recent Putnam County Post headlines delivered to your email. Go to putnamcountypost.com and click on the free daily email signup link at the top of the page.