South Putnam looks to claim regional crown

For the last three seasons, there haven't been as many high school football teams as dominant as the South Putnam Eagles. 

Chuck Sorrell's team advanced to the Class A semi-state two years ago, falling to Providence. 

A season ago, the Eagles captured the Class A state championship game.

This season, South Putnam is sitting at 12-0 after knocking off Monrovia 49-18 last week to capture the program's third straight sectional title. 

"It means a lot. It is putting this team and these players in a category of the teams from the 80's that won multiple sectional and regional titles. They have worked their tails off to put themselves in that category. We have really good crowds at all three games. It is exciting, and I talked to our administration that on Friday nights, the community is supposed to be at South Putnam football games," Sorrell told The Putnam County Post. 

Against Monrovia, the South Putnam defense overcame an early hiccup, allowing the visitors to take the opening kickoff and use 10 minutes of clock time—something Sorrell knew was possible. 

"They went on a 10 minute drive to start the game, and we look up and there's two minutes left in the quarter. We gave them chances. It's fourth and nine and we have a bonehead mistake, blow a coverage and they throw a screen pass. They earned it, but we came right back and scored. We fell behind 12-7 and we were lucky enough to get some plays offensively where we could make changes defensively and went on a 40-0 run. There's no panic. We were down to Riverton Parke. We have been down before, and came back," Sorrell admitted. 

The win was another dominant performance from the Eagles, who average 55.7 points per game, surrender just over seven and whose starting defense has only allowed points against Cascade and Monrovia. In addition, South Putnam has held opponents to seven points or less eight times, including six shutouts. 

With wins over Northview, who was ranked in the top ten in Class 4A at the time, along with impressive wins over Cascade, who won the Class 3A state title last year, and Monrovia last week, South Putnam has exerted its muscle. 

However, Sorrell notes he has not seen a true complete game from his team yet, although they have come close. 

"In moments. Against Northview, yes. The kids asked me to speak of Eastern Hancock like Northview to make sure we have a good week of practice. Obviously, Cascade is the best team we have played so far. They had the most weapons and offensive threats and we made them earn every yard. I would say Northview is probably the most perfect we have played in two years on both sides of the ball. We got a lot of sacks, lot of tackles for a loss and our offense was able to do what it wanted. We need a little bit of that this week. Eastern Hancock is undefeated, and that means they are pretty good. We need to be ready to go," he said. 

This week, South Putnam will take on Eastern Hancock (12-0) for the regional title. The Royals defeated Lutheran last week for the sectional title. 

In the win, junior tight end Luke Manship reeled in three touchdown passes from quarterback Matt Hunt, while junior running back Blake Whittington rushed for three touchdowns and 169 yards. Defensively, the Royals held Lutheran's explosive offense in check, allowing only 118 yards, 20 of which came on the ground. 

Sorrell said his team will face an Eastern Hancock team that not only is "good," but has "weapons everywhere and has probably the best receiver" the Eagles have faced. 

They are good. Everything runs through Manship. The quarterback moves around the pocket, throws the ball deep and can scramble. The running back is a hardnosed kid. They have weapons all over the field. The offensive line is big and wants to try to lean on you. We don't want to get too vertical up field. Defensively, they blitz all the time and we have to protect and make them pay. We can't give up the big play against them, and we need to make sure we score points and don't let them score more than us," Sorrell said.