NEW ALBANY — During the second half Friday night, New Albany picked up a little momentum in the third quarter to cut into the Columbus East deficit. In the fourth quarter, the Olympians shut down the momentum.
East used its strong running attack to run out the clock in the fourth quarter to never give the Bulldogs a chance at coming back. The Class 5A No. 3 Olympians picked up the 31-16 victory in the opening-round sectional football matchup.
The Olympians (8-2), who had survived a close call in a 20-19 win at New Albany during the regular season, will host Seymour in the sectional semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday.
“Whenever I get the ball, I just do my best to get yards,” said junior running back Lance Greiwe, who finished with 116 yards on the ground. “Our offensive line did a good job at creating holes.”
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After New Albany (5-5) punted on its first possession, East had good field position and took advantage when Jonah Wichman caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Cole Gilley to give the Olympians a 7-0 lead.
Early in the second quarter, both teams traded 27-yard field goals, with East leading 10-3 after a boot by Sam Thomasson. The Olympians then extended the lead when Gilley’s pass down the right side of the field found Zach Pierce for a 31-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 17-3.
The Bulldogs looked to score just before the half. They were driving down the field, and a 15-yard pass from Dylan Clark to Devon Gummer left them at the 1-yard line with 4 seconds left. On the ensuing play, Austin Oppel was handed the ball and was stopped short of the goal line to preserve East’s 17-3 lead at the half.
“It’s those kind of plays that you have to make if you want to win tournament games,” East coach Bob Gaddis said of the goal-line stand. “It was a great drive by them and a great play by our kids.”
To start the second half, the Olympians extended the lead quickly when Greiwe ran the ball 1 yard for a score to make it 24-3. For the rest of the third quarter, the momentum shifted toward the Bulldogs.
New Albany had a huge play when Gummer caught a 67-yard pass from Clark, but the extra point attempt was blocked, and East still held a 24-9 lead. After the Olympians turned the ball over, the Bulldogs took advantage with another big play when Oppel ran 30 yards for a score to cut the lead to 31-16.
That was as close as New Albany would get. The Olympians running game was able to eat up a lot of the fourth quarter clock to prevent a comeback.
Mark McDonald ran 2 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.
McDonald led East with 126 yards rushing on 24 carries. Gilley completed 11 of 14 passes for 117 yards and two scores.
“I thought our offensive line did a good job at establishing the run. At that point, we had to run the ball to take time off the clock and get our defense off the field,” Gaddis said. “We had a lot of kids making a lot of plays.”
