Columbus East’s Keaton Lawson, in orange, makes a catch while covered by Seymour’s Jackson Brock during a game at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
What a difference a week can make.
After managing only 59 yards of offense in a shutout loss at Columbus North, Columbus East eclipsed that number on its first series of Friday night’s Hoosier Hills Conference football opener against Seymour. More importantly, the Olympians were able to consistently find the end zone for the first time this season and picked up their first win with a 30-14 decision.
“It was just more about responding this week, getting over the last two weeks and moving on,” junior quarterback Kyson Villarreal said. “We’re 1-0 in the conference, and that’s all that matters. It’s conference season now, so we’re going to keep pushing.”
Villarreal completed 9 of 14 passes for 254 yards and four touchdowns. Two of those scores went to Keaton Lawson, who hauled in four passes for 151 yards, all in the first half.
East (1-2, 1-0) jumped out to a 23-0 lead, but the Owls (1-2, 0-2) made things interesting when the cut the lead to 23-14 and got the ball back midway through the third quarter. But the Olympian defense came up with a stop, and Villarreal hit Jared Brooks for a 33-yard score to push the lead to 30-14.
“I think when the momentum, when we started to shift it, they would kind of shift it back in their favor,” said Seymour coach and East graduate Tyson Moore. “It just came down to some missed opportunities for us. I think the biggest thing was, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot with missed opportunities and some penalties that hurt us in some key aspects of the game. But you have to tip your hat to Columbus East because they always scheme really well, and they took things away from us that we had a lot of success with in the past.”
East needed only four plays to jump on the board less than two minutes into the game. Villarreal hit Cam Herron for a 27-yard score and, after an extra point by Christian Guerra, a 7-0 lead.
The Olympians needed only two plays on their second series. Villarreal threw over the middle to Keaton Lawson, who got behind the defense, tipped the ball to himself, and outran the secondary to the end zone for an 80-yard touchdown.
“When they give me man coverage with him, it just clicks in my brain — ‘Get (No.) 3 the ball,’” Villarreal said. “That’s the game plan when we get that look.”
An Eric Duncan fumble recovery led to a 24-yard field goal by Guerra that made it 17-0. Then after taking over at the Seymour 40, Villarreal hit Lawson for a 40-yard strike and a 23-0 advantage.
The Owls then got their running game going and put together a drive that ended in a 2-yard touchdown run from Nick Wheeler with 31 seconds left in the first half to cut the lead to 23-7.
Seymour then got the ball to start the second half and put together another long drive. Quarterback Mikey Wright took it the final 10 yards, and all of a sudden, the Owls were within 23-14.
After Seymour forced a three-and-out, it took over at its own 3 following a 57-yard punt. The Owls managed one first down, but then had to punt, and East scored to gain some breathing room.
“There’s a lot of momentum swings in a football game, and part of winning is, the guys have to be able to learn to navigate those ups and downs and the highs and the lows and those momentum swings and respond, and we did tonight, which is progress for these guys,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “We’re learning how to play together and how to finish and win football games.”
Thomas Houpey led the Olympian rushing attack with 68 yards on 12 carries.
“We came out and competed tonight, which was good,” Vogel said. “It was a tough week of practice. It was really a gut-check for our guys after the first two weeks. We played two good opponents. It stuck in our guys’ craw a little bit, and I’m just really proud of how they responded this week. We set a goal for ourselves to try to win conference, and we’re 1-0 right now.”
East avoided starting 0-3 for the third time in four years.
“It’s definitely a big boost,” Villarreal said. “We needed this win for sure. Coming into the conference now, we just have to come to practice every day ready to go.”
“We had to bounce back from the first two losses and work hard every day in practice and show up and show out,” Lawson added. “We have to go into next week harder than we did this week.”
Wright finished 10 of 17 for 55 yards passing for Seymour. After a slow start running the ball, the Owls managed 96 yards on 39 carries, led by Treysean Hawkins’ 39 yards on eight carries.
“I think if we’re able to do that from the get-go, do we win? I don’t know, but I think it’s a lot different score on the scoreboard,” Moore said. “But it’s one of those that we had to respond after last week because last week, we didn’t run the ball. We were ineffective. So our offensive line, I challenged them last week and told them Columbus East saw our weak spots, and they were going to take advantage of those and blitz the lights out on us, and they did some of that. I was pleased with the success that we started to have. I just wish we would have had it earlier in the game.”
Columbus East 30, Seymour 14
Seymour;0;7;7;0;—;14
Columbus East;14;9;7;0;—;30
CE — Cam Herron 27 pass from Kyson Villarreal (Christian Guerra kick), 10:22.
CE — Keaton Lawson 80 pass from Villarreal (Guerra kick), 6:56.
CE — Guerra 24 FG, 8:45.
CE — Lawson 40 pass from Villarreal (kick failed), 6:08.
S — Nick Wheeler 2 run (Adrian Medina kick), :31.
S — Mikey Wright 10 run (Medina kick), 7:57.
CE — Jared Brooks 33 pass from Villarreal (Guerra kick), 1:42.
Individual statistics
RUSHING — Seymour: Traysean Hawkins 8-39, Wright 19-37, Wheeler 11-27, Logan Shelly 1-(-7). Columbus East: Thomas Houpey 12-68, JD Rotert 5-24, Villarreal 11-22, Brody Miller 1-6, Lawson 1-1.
PASSING — Seymour: Wright 10 for 17, 55 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions. Columbus East: Villarreal 9-14-254-4-0.
RECEIVING — Seymour: Jaylan Johnson 5-51, Shelly 2-8, Wheeler 3-(-4). Columbus East: Lawson 4-151, Brooks 2-48, Kamden Shelley 2-28, Herron 1-27.
