WARR ACRES – Putnam City North senior back Milton Alford’s rushing yards were down in the Panthers’ 21-7 loss to Putnam City Friday (Sept. 13).

But Alford, who rushed for 52 yards on 18 carries and caught two passes for another 48 yards, drew praise from North coach Derek Lane.

“He’s kind of, he’s just a hard working kid. He goes 100 miles an hour every day,” Lane said after the loss to North’s rival “There was times he was carrying two, three, four guys and things like that.

“In the future, I mean, we got to continue to establish our run game and get Milton going.”

After Milton’s bigger game in week one against Shawnee, Lane had a message for his running back.

” ‘The offense is going to go how you go,’ ” Lane told Alford. ” ‘ You keep playing hard, you keep running hard, then we’re going to continue to move the ball down the field.’ “

NEW QB JONES HITS ‘LEARNING CURVE’

North junior Mason Jones struggled, completing 13-of-25 for 141 yards with two interceptions.

Lane said the Bishop McGuinness transfer is in his first year of playing quarterback full-time and is still learning the position.

“There’s gonna be a little bit of a learning curve for him,” Lane said. “But he’s a good kid and he’s a hard worker.”

Besides Alford, senior Kameron Oliver was a big target for Jones, catching five passes for 46 yards. Oliver rushed for North’s only score in the game.

Fellow senior Jakorey Locke caught three balls for 32 yards.

NORTH DEFENSE HELD BACK PIRATES

Despite being put in tough field position situations in the first half, the North defense kept its team in the game.

“I tell the kids about analytics and things like that. If they get the ball on the 30, there’s probably a 70 percent chance that they’re going to come away with some points,” Lane said.

Senior Kelvin Tucker led the team with 14 tackles. Fellow senior Dameon Hardmon added 13 tackles. Junior Jarrett Rogers contributed 11 stops. Rogers also had an interception.

In all, North had 12 tackles for loss.

Photographs courtesy of Richard T. Clifton