East Olympians Blog

Wow. So much for another close game in the annual city showdown.

But the nice thing is that, short of an early display of misplaced energy, this didn’t turn as ugly as it could have. After all, a 35-3 margin of victory could have led to some bad blood and heated tempers.

That it didn’t is a testament to both sides of the rivalry. Good for you, Columbus.

Just a little over 24 hours now, as I write this, before the annual East vs. North football showdown.

I’m now in my third year of covering East football, and — no surprise — the East-North matchup has been the most compelling. Probably because it’s the most competitive game on the Olympians’ schedule.

East has dominated the Hoosier Hills Conference. From 2004 through 2007, East’s regular-season conference record is 27-1. That sole loss was a 33-30 heartbreaker at Bedford North Lawrence which saw the Stars control with big running plays and an opportunistic defense.

East also lost to conference rival Seymour in the 2005 sectional opener. But look at their 27 conference wins in that span and you see the O’s outscoring their opponents 1,264 to 292. That’s an average margin of victory of 36 points per game.

Meanwhile, against North? Last year’s 20-10 North win featured the largest margin of victory since 2003, when the Bull Dogs won 35-7.

Certainly the conference season is important for the O’s. There’s certainly some confidence that can come from easily beating these other teams, especially when you consider five of East’s seven HHC foes are in Class 5A.

But ultimately, I think it’s tonight’s game that has pushed East and North alike into the state’s upper echelon of football programs.

There’s no doubt anymore that Columbus is a football town. Which makes tonight’s game truly “the” game on both team’s schedules.

At least until one or both make it to Lucas Oil Stadium at the end of November.

With an earlier than normal deadline, I had to scramble to get my story done for tomorrow’s paper while also editing everybody else. So if there are any mistakes, that one’s on me.

Just some quick thoughts on Friday’s season-opener for East before I call it a night:

In 14 games now with Dusty Kiel at QB, East has topped 50 points in six of them. In that same span, the O’s defense has three shutouts and eight times total have held opponents to single digit-scoring.

Any concerns about that defense were put to rest, or at least addressed, on Friday night. Yes, the Woodmen broke off a few long runs, but that’s going to happen when your defensive focus is on speed rather than bulk the way East’s is. The O’s, I’m sure, will take those occasional long runs when they’re pitching a shutout otherwise.

Columbus East enters the season ranked No. 2 in The Associated Press football poll — lofty territory, to be sure, but hardly new ground for the Olympians.
What would be new ground is where the team hopes to be come Nov. 29 — playing at Lucas Oil Stadium for the Class 4A state championship.
Certainly the pieces are in place for a title run. An offense that averaged almost 44 points a game last season returns virtually intact. The defense should be just fine with top-notch talent like Will Saddler, Ethen Roberts, Clayton and Connor Miller and Reggie Ringo at key spots.
And, with all due respect to the Hoosier Hills Conference, there should be no problems running the HHC table again.
The real test will come tournament time.
But there’s one thing this group of Olympians can take from last year’s heartbreaking 61-60 loss at Evansville Reitz in the regional — the O’s have all the talent to hang with the state’s best.