MARTINSVILLE — The Columbus East football team had its final tuneup before the regular season begins in a scrimmage game Friday night at Martinsville.
The Olympians controlled the scrimmage on both offense and defense. They scored six touchdowns to one for the Artesians.
The scrimmage started off with each team running 18 straight plays beginning from their own 35-yard line. Next, both teams started at midfield, running 12 consecutive plays. Then, both teams ran 12 plays beginning from the opponent’s 35.
East coach Bob Gaddis says it was a good outing as the Olympians prepare for their opening game Friday at home against Bloomington North.
“I thought we came out and got everything accomplished,” he said. “I thought Martinsville came out fast pretty early, particularly on defense and kind of set the tone. Once we got into the speed of the game, I thought we did pretty well.”
Junior quarterback Josh Major got hot right out of the gate. He completed two passes for 127 yards, both for touchdowns to Cameron Wilson and Caleb Voelker. Then Jaedin Miller added a rushing touchdown to put East ahead 3-0.
“Josh had a great season last year,” Gaddis said. “He is a great runner, passer, and a great competitor. He is going to do a whole bunch for us this year. Our (running) backs did well and our offensive line once they got going did all right.”
East extended the lead when Miller scored his second touchdown of the night on the second offensive series for a 4-0 lead.
On the ensuing Martinsville possession, it finally got on the scoreboard when Jonathan Collier passed to Colton Tribby on the fifth play of the series to make it 4-1.
As solid as the Olympians’ offense was, the defense was just as stellar. The final three Artesian possessions ended on two interceptions and a sack.
“I was really happy with our defense,” Gaddis said. “We have a lot of new faces defensively, and we are shuffling kids around, but I thought they played hard and they played real fast.”
East picked up two additional scores. The first came when Ethan Summa caught a pass from freshman quarterback Cole Gilley from 21 yards out. Summa also had an interception on defense. The final score of the game came when Jay Salinas ran in from 7 yards out.
