It was not the perfect game that the Columbus East boys soccer team wanted in its crosstown rival match with Columbus North Thursday night at Richard Wigh Soccer Complex.
However, the Class 3A No. 13 Olympians did just enough to fend off every Bull Dog charge in picking up a 3-2 victory, their third win in a row against North.
“Our team has been very resilient all year. We’ve been one of those teams that if they pound back, we’re always going to keep right back at it,” East junior Logan Cline said. “We’re always going to have that heart. We’re always going to have that desire and have that intensity coming back.”
It didn’t take long for the Olympians (3-0-1) to draw first blood. They struck in the fifth minute when Chris Quisenberry dribbled in the box and delivered a pass to Cline, who finished the play from the left side to put the ball in the net for a 1-0 lead.
The Bull Dogs (1-3) answered right back in the 11th minute when Ben Malone netted a goal off an assist from Sam Larken to tie the game at 1-1.
East made a huge defensive play in the 20th minute. Off a North set piece, Larken received the ball from the left side and delivered a pass in the box, which brought Olympians keeper Zach Roberts off his line. The net was left open for a couple shot attempts by the Bull Dogs, but the Olympian defense of East kept the ball out of the net, and the first half ended 1-1.
East got the go ahead goal in the 51st minute when Jorge Nieto passed to Quisenberry, who made a spin move to get by his defender to put the ball in the net for a 2-1 lead. The Olympians extended the lead in the 62nd minute when Quisenberry dribbled the ball from the left side and made a pass across the field to Cline, who finished the play for a 3-1 lead.
“We were not playing our best (first) half, probably one of our worst halves we played,” Nieto said. “We came out in the second half with our heads up knowing we needed to play better. In the second half, we came out on fire.”
A minute later, North answered when Graham Keele netted a goal to cut it to 3-2.
“I think the mark of a good team is when you win, and you don’t play well,” East coach Brad Barber said. “We didn’t play well tonight, and we know that we can play at a higher level than we showed. Our experience showed that even though we weren’t having a good game that we were still able to go out and get the ‘W.’”
In the closing minutes of the match, East controlled the ball in the corner of the time to drain the clock and eventually let the time expire.
“We just have to move on, and now our focus will be on Center Grove,” North coach Tom Pollert said.
