Columbus North head coach Logan Haston speaks with his team before their football game against Bloomington North Friday at Columbus North High School.
Mike Wolanin | The Republic
The good news for Columbus North and Columbus East is that they avoided having to play the teams to beat in their respective football sectional brackets and will play home games in the opening round.
The bad news for both the Bull Dogs and Olympians is that should they get past that first round, they likely would have to play those sectional favorites on the road in the sectional finals.
Class 6A co-No. 8 North (7-1) will host Franklin Central (5-2) in the sectional semifinals on Nov. 1. That same night, East (5-3) will host Franklin (3-5) in Class 5A.
Those were the fates handed down by Sunday evening’s IHSAA tournament draw. Classes 5A and 6A will be off on Oct. 25.
“We’re excited for the opportunity,” North coach Logan Haston said. “There’s a buzz in the air when you get to this point of the season. We have a lot of respect for Franklin Central, but we feel like it’s a game that we can win. Our guys are excited for the challenge ahead of them.”
The Flashes have won four in a row, including wins over Fishers and Hamilton Southeastern — two teams that have been in an out of the state rankings this season — the past two weeks.
“They’re on a hot streak right now,” Haston said. “They’ve knocked two quality opponents back to back. They play in a tough (Hoosier Crossroads) conference. They play good football week in and week out, and it’s going to be a good challenge for us.”
If the Bull Dogs win, they would visit the winner of the Center Grove at Jeffersonville game in the finals on Nov. 8. The 6A No. 7 Trojans have won 14 consecutive sectional titles.
Columbus East head coach Eddie Vogel (kneeling inside the circle of players) chats with the defensive players during a break in the action Friday at Columbus East High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Meanwhile, Franklin will be a new opponent for East. Olympians coach Eddie Vogel and Franklin coach Chris Coll were assistant coaches together in the Indiana North-South All-Star Game when Coll was at Tri-West.
“I know he does a really good job,” Vogel said. “They looked really solid when we saw them on film against New Albany. It will be good to play somebody new. It will be a good challenge for us.”
If East wins, it would visit the winner of the East Central at Seymour game for the sectional final. Class 5A No. 7 East Central won the 4A state championship the past two years before moving up to 5A because of the tournament success factor.
“With their record the last two years, their only two losses are to (Cincinnati) Moeller and Harrison,” Vogel said. “I know coach (Jake) Meiners does a really good job over there. It’s pretty impressive what they’ve done the last couple of years, and you don’t just do that with seniors. They’ve had really good underclassmen. They’re a really good team.”
Classes A through 4A will play first-round games on Oct. 25. Jennings County will play at Bedford North Lawrence in 4A, and Brown County will host Mitchell in 2A.
In Class A, Edinburgh will host North Decatur, and South Decatur will host West Washington.
