Columbus East’s Kyson Villarreal stops his run after losing his helmet against Columbus East and Bloomington South at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Friday, Aug. 23, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Columbus East showed signs of improvement in Friday’s football season opener, but unfortunately for the Olympians, the result didn’t show it.
Class 5A No. 10 Bloomington South used a pair of touchdown passes from sophomore Duncan Combs, 203 yards rushing and a score from Braylen Townsend and two field goals from Bryce Taylor to hand East a 27-6 defeat.
The Olympians had their chances. After they got on the board on a 2-yard keeper from Kyson Villarreal to cut the deficit to 13-6 with 2:59 left in the first half, cornerback Zach Foster came up with an interception and returned it into Panther territory. Villarreal hit Jared Brooks for 11 yards to the 38, but then was called for intentional grounding, and the drive stalled.
Then after Bloomington South took the second-half kickoff and drove for a 20-6 lead, East put together its second long drive of the night. The Olympians had it first-and-goal at the 2, but Villarreal was stopped for no gain on first and second downs, Brody Miller was thrown for a 3-yard loss and on fourth-and-goal, Villareal’s pass fell incomplete.
“You can’t do that against a good team,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “They really won it up front in the trenches I think on both sides of the football.”
Taking over at their own 5, the Panthers drove 95 yards to essentially put the game away.
Villarreal finished 16 of 27 for 155 yards passing and led East with 34 yards on 11 carries. Keaton Lawson caught seven passes for 74 yards.
A bright spot for the Olympians came in playing turnover-free football.
“I thought we were much better (than in last week’s scrimmage against Whiteland) up front on the offensive side of the football,” Vogel said. “I thought Bloomington South’s defense was really well coached and pretty good, and we were able to move the football. Our pass protection was much better offensively, and Kyson did a pretty good job throwing the football and guys made some plays. Then really, we kind of bent, but didn’t break there in that first half defensively. So there are some things to take away that are bright spots, but we have to be able to play 48 minutes against good teams to win.”
That includes next week, when East travels to Columbus North. The Bull Dogs opened Friday with a 41-15 upset win at 5A No. 1 Decatur Central.
“We won the turnover battle, but we just have to be able to do things once we get it,” Vogel said. “Bloomington South has a good football team, and we have to bounce back and continue to improve and be ready to go next week against a good Columbus North team. We’re going to watch some film and try to improve on the things we didn’t do well, and then we’ll try to get ourselves ready for Columbus North next week.”
Bloomington South 27, Columbus East 6
Bloomington South;10;3;7;7;—;27
Columbus East;0;6;0;0;—;6
BS — Bryce Taylor 20 FG, 2:05.
BS— Sam Giles 27 pass from Duncan Combs, (Taylor kick), :29.
BS —Taylor 53 FG, 9:38.
CE — Kyson Villarreal 2 run (kick failed), 2:59.
BS — Thomas Gill 5 pass from Combs (Taylor kick), 7:12.
BS — Braylen Townsend 7 run (Taylor kick), 7:54.
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Bloomington South: Townsend 26-203, Blake Azcui 4-30, Giles 1-8, Connor Parker 1-5, Combs 4-(-1). Columbus East: Villarreal 11-34, Thomas Houpey 5-24, JD Rotert 5-9, Brody Miller 3-2.
PASSING — Bloomington South: Combs 15 for 22, 127 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception. Columbus East: Villarreal 16-27-155-0-0.
RECEIVING — Bloomington South: Giles 5-58, Parker 4-32, Rylan Stikeleather 2-20, Samuel Moore 1-12, Gill 1-5, Azcui 2-0. Columbus East: Keaton Lawson 7-74, Jared Brooks 4-35, Kamden Shelley 3-32, Jax Siegman 1-9, Cam Herron 1-5.
