Next year will mark a new era in Columbus East football — the Class 6A Era.
The Olympians clinched their move to the state’s largest class with a 20-13 regional victory against Castle on Friday night.
But first, East isn’t finished playing 5A football. The 5A co-No. 3 Olympians will host 5A No. 2 Decatur Central in the semistate on Friday, with a berth in the state finals on the line.
The win against Castle didn’t come easy. East trailed 6-0 in the closing seconds of the first half and didn’t put the game away until quarterback Cole Gilley ran five yards for a first down on fourth-and-3 from the Knights 35 with about a minute left in the game to preserve its seventh regional title in the past eight years.
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“I’m really proud of this team for getting that done,” East coach Bob Gaddis said. “It’s not easy winning a regional championship in football because it takes four weeks to get it done. We got off to a slow start this season, and now we’re one win away from going back. It’s going to be great to be playing again deep into November.”
The game changed in the closing minutes of the first half. Castle was driving to take a two-score lead when quarterback Cameron Justus fumbled after being hit, and East took over at its own 14. After an exchange of three-and-outs, Castle’s Nathaniel Raibley came up with an interception and returned it to the Olympians 30.
East once again held the Knights and took over at its own 20 with 1:59 remaining. The Olympians drove 80 yards in eight plays, with a 24-yard pass from Gilley to Cody Horner setting up Mark McDonald’s 1-yard touchdown run with 13 seconds left in the half.
East then took control in the third quarter. The Olympians took the second half kickoff and drove 80 yards in seven plays. On third-and-10 from the Castle 25, Gilley hit Jonah Wichman, who made a one-handed catch, made a spin move and drug a pair of tacklers into the end zone.
After holding the Knights to a three-and-out, East struck again. This time, Gilley hit Wichman for an 11-yard score and a 20-6 lead with 4:20 left in the third quarter.
Castle cut the lead to 20-13 on a 23-yard pass from Justus to Jasper Huebner with 7:12 left in the game. But after the Olympians turned it over on downs at the Knights’ 36, they held Castle on four plays to take over and run out the clock.
Gilley finished 17 of 25 for 257 yards passing. McDonald was held to 48 yards on 25 carries.
“We had to make some adjustments in our bootleg protection,” Gaddis said. “We had to make some adjustments with our passing game. Cole did a nice job, and we did a nice job protecting him. We didn’t run the ball real well, but we made some passing plays when we had to.”
