Columbus North’s Gino Prescott (0) scores a touchdown as he is tackled by Columbus East’s Joel Murphy (5) during the annual rivalry football game between the two schools at Columbus North Friday, Aug. 30, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
Columbus North has its first 2-0 start to the season since 2018, while Columbus East is still looking for its first win of the season.
The Bull Dogs and Olympians will begin conference play when they hit the gridiron Friday night for Week 3 of the high school football season. North is on the road to take on Conference Indiana foe Southport, and East hosts Seymour in a Hoosier Hills Conference showdown.
One big factor for the Bull Dogs’ success has been defense. They were dominant in the 41-15 season-opening win at Class 5A then-No. 1 Decatur Central and then shutting out the Olympians 42-0 Friday.
North’s defense, as well as offensive efforts from the first two games are showing. They’re ranked No. 16 in Class 6A in the Indiana Football Coaches Association poll.
“An offensive coordinator’s favorite thing is a good defense behind them. Our offense is very thankful for the way our defense has started this season,” North coach Logan Haston said. “They are just relentless. They have really bought into the mindset of our defensive coordinator, coach (Luke) Teague. We like were we’re at right now. I’m sure they’ll watch the film and see those things they can get better at, but I’m pleased with them.”
East needs to find a way to stop teams from making the end zone if they want to have success against the Owls. The Olympians have given up 10 total touchdowns in their two games this season.
The teams played twice last year, with Seymour winning both of the contests 41-26 and 39-20. In order to come out with a win Friday, East needs to tackle better after giving up a lot of yards after the catch to North and make plays for the entire 48 minutes.
“They’ve got to believe in themselves, and they have that mentality. We played with a lot of people for first halves of games, and the first sign that something went wrong, we’re not able to execute after that,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “That’s our job as coaches. We’ve got to figure out a way. Our goals are still in front of us, so that’s our job as coaches is to sell that to them and get them to believe and be able to turn the page.”
It’s no secret the Bull Dogs have much better odds to win Friday. According to the Jeff Sagarin rating, North is a 35-point favorite against the Cardinals. East will be 4-point underdogs against the Owls.
With two emotional wins already, it’s obvious Haston wants his team focused and playing North football and not have a letdown, especially when bigger challenges lie ahead the next six weeks.
“Honestly, we kind of experienced that earlier in the week (preparing for Columbus East). I think we were still riding the high of Decatur Central and the early days of this practice week, and we just didn’t have good days of practice,” Haston said. “That was a learning opportunity for us, and I think as we head into this week, we need to learn from our mistakes from this past week. What can we do differently to make sure we don’t overlook anybody and that we turn the page on the previous game. It’s a new game, a new game plan and I hope our guys learn from that mistake this week and be better ready to go.”
The Olympians will look to avoid an 0-3 start for the third time in the past four years and for the first time in back-to back seasons since 2001-02.
While Vogel would have liked a better start from his team, the message has been that the season isn’t over, and the conference title is still up for grabs.
“That was the message I tried to press upon them,” Vogel said. “We’ve got a lot of games ahead of us. We’ve got to be able to put (the North game) to bed, and that starts when we start watching tape and figure how we can get better from (Friday) and what we can do to execute against Seymour.”
