Cloverdale, South Putnam set to battle for The Bucket

Not all games are created equal.

Since before the season, South Putnam head football coach Chuck Sorrell talked about how one of his team's goals was to capture a county championship.

For Cloverdale head football coach Tyler Lotz, a win Friday night would give the Clovers two things they covet -- a win over the Eagles and the Putnam County Bucket.

The two will square off Friday at 7 p.m. at South Putnam on the GIANT fm WREB Game of the Week. Patrick Rady and Paul Gable will have the pregame show at 6:30 p.m., with kickoff to follow. 

For the Eagles, they enter at 6-2, highly ranked and looking to advance not only to the Class 4A semi-state but go one step further this season. 

While retaining the bucket would be nice, Sorrell admits the goals are bigger for South Putnam.

"The county championship is a huge part of our team's goals, but we have one ultimate goal and that is to win state level championships. That starts by continuing to play well in all three phases of football as we did last Friday night," said Sorrell, who watched his team dismantle Owen Valley, 63-0, last week. 

Last week, Cloverdale (5-3) cruised past West Vigo, 55-3, and Lotz and his team need no reminders of what is at stake Friday. South Putnam owns a 41-4 edge in the series over the last four decades against the Clovers. 

"Winning the bucket would be awesome, but I think the biggest thing for us is to prove to ourselves that we are a good football team and can compete with the highest level A teams. That would bring us a lot of confidence heading into postseason play," Lotz told The Putnam County Post. 

Both coaches are extremely complimentary of the other's program. 

"They look like a South Putnam team -- big up front on both sides of the ball with athletes to spread the wealth, too. Running back runs hard and is hard to bring down and they do a good job on defense rallying to the ball," Lotz acknowledged. 

Sorrell said when he turns on Cloverdale he sees a team that is vastly improved. 

"They keep improving. Their skill guys can score multiple ways, but what shows the most is the work they put into the weight room. It really shows in their offensive and defensive fronts," Sorrell said. 

As for what it will take to secure a victory, both coaches point to the play in the trenches, as well as a few other keys. 

"We need to dominate the lines of scrimmage. We have to have great kick coverage, not give up any big plays on defense and continue to limit our turnovers," Sorrell said. 

For the Clovers, Lotz said his team has to take care of the ball. 

"We've got to win in three categories that we've tried to focus on all year. First, we have to take care of the ball. We have to have more takeaways than they do. Second, we have to win the explosive play battle. We have to limit their explosives and we have to be explosive on offense and special teams. Finally, tackling. We have to make them miss more tackles than we do, especially with a running back like they have. we have to tackle at an elite level and rally to the ball," Lotz said.