Columbus East’s Devon Tekulve (8) flies into the end zone after intercepting a pass during a game against Jeffersonville at Columbus East High School.
The Columbus East football team is still alive for a share of the Hoosier Hills Conference title after it rolled past Jeffersonville 42-0 Friday night.
The Olympians won’t win the outright title due to Seymour beating New Albany 49-7 to earn at least its first share of the title since 2001. They’ll share the title with the Owls with a win at Bedford North Lawrence on Friday.
“It’s been our goal all year is to win conference,” East quarterback Ethan Duncan said. “We happened to lose to Floyd (Central), but we looked past it, came out, and we’re trying to do business in the HHC.”
After East (4-4, 4-1) forced a punt on Jeffersonville’s (1-6, 0-5) opening possession, they went to the ground for a few plays. The biggest play was a reverse to Chase Zapfe for 23 years. A couple plays later, Duncan went to Zapfe on the left side to score the 14-yard touchdown to go ahead 7-0 following Nathaniel Hedrick’s extra point.
On the ensuing possession, the defense stepped up to make a play. Red Devil quarterback Nik Schindler threw the interception to Devon Tekulve, who returned it for 35 yards for the touchdown to make it 14-0 with 7:02 left in the first quarter.
“Our defense, especially in the backfield, are pretty close all together,” East defensive back Kaeden Fields said. “We work really well with each other.”
After both teams stalled offensive for a few drives, the Olympians got it going to start the second quarter. They went to the ground often to get the ball to the 36-yard line. Duncan then ran it 36 yards for the score to increase the lead to 21-0 with 11:11 left in the first half.
A couple of drives later, Jeffersonville punted the ball and Tekulve had a good return in Red Devil territory to the 30-yard line. In one play, Duncan found Tekulve for 30 yards to increase the lead to 28-0 with 5:53 left in the half.
On the first possession of the second half for the Olympians, Duncan had a couple big runs to march down the field. He eventually capped off the drive with a 16-yard touchdown run to go ahead 35-0 with 9:58 left in the third quarter.
A running clock was triggered for the remainder of the game. After the Red Devils punted, it only took East one play with a Tyler Weller 42-yard touchdown run to increase the lead to 42-0 with under 4:30 left in the third. Later in the game with under two minutes left in regulation, Izike Addis intercepted the ball the ice the game.
“It was really a team win. We played really good defense. We got our running game going. Ethan threw the ball well. We got a defensive touchdown and our special teams were solid,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “I was really proud of the resiliency of our players and really going out and executing in all three phases.”
