Columbus East’s Keaton Lawson (3) looks for room to run after intercepting the ball during Friday’s game against Bloomington North at Stafford Field at Columbus East High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
One of the big goals every year for Columbus North and Columbus East football is to capture their conference championships.
Friday night, both the Bull Dogs and Olympians will have a chance to clinch at least a share of their respective conference titles on their senior nights, and with wins each of the last two weeks of the regular season, North and East would win outright championships.
“It’s a big week,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “Our team has a lot to play for. We talked (Monday) about, the guys have worked hard to put themselves in this position. We want to make sure we take advantage of the opportunity. We don’t get these opportunities all the time. We’ve played well in conference so far, and we want to make sure that we do that again on Friday.”
Columbus North’s Davonte Degraffenreid tackles Roncalli’s Henry Adams during a game Sept. 13 at Max Andress Field at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Both the Bull Dogs and Olympians will be facing teams this week that are in the thick of the conference race. East (4-3, 4-0) will host Jeffersonville (5-2, 3-1), while Class 6A co-No. 8 Columbus North (6-1, 3-0) will host 5A No. 5 Bloomington North (6-1, 3-0).
The Bull Dogs had a chance to share the title last year, but fell three points short at Bloomington North.
“It’s an exciting week for us,” Columbus North coach Logan Haston said. “We put ourselves in position to make this a very important and meaningful game. Last year’s game was a heartbreaker and one we thought got away from us, and our guys have been waiting for this game for a year. I’m really excited for the opportunity ahead of us on Friday night.”
The Bull Dogs are coming off a 32-14 win at Bloomington South.
“We did an awesome job of handling adversity throughout that game,” Haston said. “There were some questionable things with officiating, and Bloomington South was playing well. They took the lead on us early in the second half, and we didn’t flinch. I’m just proud of the maturity of our team to be able to keep playing in a tough environment.”
Columbus North got a pair of injured standouts back from injury in that game. Braylon Thoman caught eight passes for 81 yards, and tight end-linebacker Garrett Long had a touchdown reception.
Bloomington North is coming off a 28-20 win at East. Senior quarterback Dash King completed 13 of 19 passes for 243 yards and a touchdown and ran for 63 yards and three scores to lead the Cougars.
“Their quarterback is where it all begins with them,” Haston said. “He can make plays with his arm and with his legs. For our defense, it will be a big challenge because he can sit in the pocket and throw the ball, and he can extend plays with his legs and hurt you that way. When you look at the two teams on paper, there’s a lot of similarities. Both teams had a lot of juniors last year and have a big senior class with a lot of senior leadership.”
East’s loss to Bloomington North came down to its inability to get off the field on defense. The Cougars were 13 for 19 on third down and 3 for 3 on fourth down.
“I thought we competed really well,” Vogel said. “Our guys have grown quite a bit in what we’re doing and their belief in each other. To be able to compete with a team like Bloomington North for 48 minutes — and what might even make it worse is that we were pretty close. There were a lot of plays, that if we get a few of them to go our way, maybe the outcome is different. But I think our guys proved to themselves that they can play and that they’re going to fight for 48 minutes. So we have to make sure that we continue that this week against Jeffersonville.”
Jeffersonville, which beat New Albany 40-22 last week, is on track for its first winning season since 2015. New coach Joe Washington brought in 23 transfers this season, including a few from Kentucky power Louisville St. Xavier.
“There’s some different guys for sure than what we saw last year,” Vogel said. “They have some really talented skill players, and they’re a lot more disciplined it seems like on film than what they’ve been in past years. They kind of create a different challenge with the number of athletes that they put on the field.”
