The Columbus East football team got on the scoreboard early and often Friday night in rolling over Hoosier Hills Conference foe Seymour 49-13 in the sectional semifinals.
The Class 5A co-No. 3 Olympians move on to face Bedford North Lawrence for the sectional championship at 7 p.m. Friday in Bedford.
After East punted on its first possession, it finally got the offense clicking on the second. Quarterback Cole Gilley found Jonah Wichman for a 34-yard pass play, and later on in the drive, the Olympians scored on a Lance Greiwe 3-yard run to lead 7-0.
“In that series when we hit the pass to Jonah, it was a big play to get us out of the hole,” East coach Bob Gaddis said. “It got us going after that.”
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When the Olympians (9-2) were back on offense, it was Mark McDonald’s turn to get in on the act. He used a couple stiffarms to run for 49 yards and then later capped off the drive with a 3-yard run to extend the lead to 14-0.
On East’s first drive of the second quarter, it took less than a minute to score after Greiwe reached the end zone on a 30-yard run to extend the lead to 21-0.
On the next possession for the Olympians, Gilley found Zach Pierce to extend the lead to 28-0 with 8:38 left in the second quarter. The lead was extended when Gilley threw a 40-yard pass to Dalton Back for a 35-0 advantage.
The Owls (6-4) then got on the board with less than three minutes left in the first half when Nathan O’Mara scored on a 25-yard run to cut the lead to 35-7. O’Mara ran for 208 yards on 27 carries.
With about 13 seconds left in the first half, Gilley found Back again for a 26-yard strike to give East a 42-7 halftime lead.
McDonald added a second-half touchdown, this one from 1 yard. McDonald finished with 138 yards on 16 carries.
“I thought we had good balance offensively,” Gaddis said. “Gilley did a nice job of directing the offense and had a really nice night throwing the ball and understanding what we needed to do. Offensively, I was real happy with it. Defensively, we came out and did a lot of great things.”
Now, the Olympians turns their attention to Bedford, a team they beat 58-48 to close the regular season and clinch the Hoosier Hills Conference title.
“I imagine they will be loaded up for us again. It was a great football game the last time,” Gaddis said. “They have a lot of good players that make great plays that we have to prepare for. I don’t know that either team will do anything differently on offense because both teams moved the ball so well. Defensively, you might see some changes from both sides.”
