Since Columbus High School split into two schools nearly a half-century ago, the Columbus North-Columbus East football rivalry couldn’t be much closer.
The crosstown rivals have met 47 times, and the Olympians hold a slim 24-23 advantage. That includes a 27-26 East win in the 2009 sectional, when both schools were in 5A, which was at the time the state’s largest class.
In the regular season, the teams are deadlocked at 23-23. The Olympians’ total includes a victory in 1994, a game that the Bull Dogs won 28-12 on the field, but later had to forfeit for using an ineligible player.
Tonight, North will have a chance to even the overall series when the teams meet at 7 p.m. at North.
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“It’s a big rivalry game,” East coach Bob Gaddis said. “It’s a big football game, and I tell our kids when we go through our scouting report how fortunate they are to be involved in this game. It’s a bigger game than a lot of high school kids ever get to play in. I hope they get a chance to enjoy that.”
Gaddis is in his 18th year at East, while Tim Bless is in his 19th year as coach at North. In their 18 head-to-head meetings (counting the 2009 sectional), the Olympians hold a 10-8 advantage.
Both teams will enter the game ranked in both polls. In 5A, East is No. 7 in the AP poll and No. 8 in the coaches poll. The Bull Dogs are No. 8 in both polls in 6A.
“North is an elite team in our state,” Gaddis said. “Columbus North is as good a team as we play every year. They’re a good football team, and we’re going to find out if we got any better this week. Hopefully, we can go out and be competitive with them.”
The Bull Dogs opened the season last week with a 64-7 rout of Franklin. Senior Trenton Kelley threw for 227 yards and three touchdowns, and senior Michael Johnson and sophomore Blake Huffman both ran for more than 100 yards and a score.
North’s offensive explosion came after the game was delayed an hour-and-10 minutes because of lightning.
“We felt good about our performance against Franklin,” Bless said. “I’m very pleased with our kids’ maturity, coming out and playing great football from the beginning.”
The Olympians’ opener against Whiteland also was delayed because of lighting, but East didn’t fare as well once the game started. The Warriors jumped out to a 14-0 lead and led 26-7 before East trimmed the final margin to 26-20.
East returned only seven starters from last year’s 5A state championship team.
“We have 15 new starters, and we looked like we had 15 new starters Friday night,” Gaddis said. “We had a little conversation on Saturday morning about just that — it’s time to grow up. It’s going to be a team that I think gets better. We’ll practice hard. I think our kids will get after it.”
Sophomore Mark McDonald led the Olympians with 174 yards rushing and a touchdown. He is part of an entirely new backfield.
Gaddis said the biggest thing is consistentcy. He thought East had flashes of being pretty good in all three phases of the game, but was consistent, and he thinks that is going to come with experience.
Gaddis thought Whiteland exploited some of the things that the Olympians did poorly. The Warriors finished 2-8 last season.
“I think kids are kids,” Gaddis said. “Sixteen-and 17-year-old boys, it’s hard to get them to understand that those kind of things can happen in athletics. I don’t know that we were overconfident, but I think that we probably didn’t understand that it was a huge game for them. There’s a bulls-eye on our back because of the success that we’ve had. Everybody wants a shot at us, and Whiteland came in and had a great plan and played a great football game. I think we learned from it. It’s not the end of the world. We get a chance to play a lot more games.”
The loss was East’s first in a season opener since 2003, when it was shut out 23-0 at Greenwood. North then handed the Olympians a 35-7 loss in Week 2 that year to give East an 0-2 start.
The Olympians will be trying to avoid that fate tonight.
“We certainly have to put Friday’s results from both schools behind us and be prepared to play the best football game we can,” Bless said. “Year-in-and-year-out, Columbus East is as prepared a team as we see, and that will be no different (tonight).”
The East game will be the first in a tough three-game stretch for the Bull Dogs. They visit Southport next week, then return home to face 5A No. 9 Roncalli.
“It gets a lot tougher from here on out,” Bless said. “The next three games, we’ll find out a lot about ourselves because all three teams are ranked opponents. I’m curious to see how we come through the next three-week stretch.”
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Tonight’s matchup:
Columbus East at Columbus North
Game time
7 p.m.
Season’s records
East 0-1, North 1-0
Last year’s meeting
North won 34-17
Coaches
Bob Gaddis is 304-135 in his 40th year, including 186-35 in his 18th year at East. Tim Bless is 135-90 in his 21st year, including 123-81 in his 19th year at North.
Key players
East QB Cole Gilley, RB Lance Greiwe, WR Dalton Back, TE Isaac VanCuren, G Jacob Bolte, LB Nash Murphy, LB Julian Greenwell, S Jonah Wichman; North QB Trenton Kelley, RB Michael Johnson, WR Preston Terrell, TE/DE Mitchel Collier, OT Noah Algee, DE Will Redding, LB Tay Wells, S Jalen Paswater
Prediction
Columbus North 34, Columbus East 21
This week’s other matchups
Jennings County at Brown County, 7 p.m. today
Edinburgh at North Decatur, 7 p.m. today
Indiana Deaf at Trinity Lutheran, 7 p.m. today
South Decatur at Tri-County, 2 p.m. Saturday
Next week’s matchups
Seymour at Columbus East, 7 p.m.
Columbus North at Southport, 7 p.m.
New Albany at Jennings County, 7 p.m.
Brown County at Cascade, 7 p.m.
Oldenburg Academy at Edinburgh, 7 p.m.
South Decatur at Trinity Lutheran, 7 p.m.
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