Two weeks are in the books, and now it’s time for a new season — conference season.
Both Columbus North and Columbus East open conference football play tonight and will look to defend their conference titles. The Bull Dogs will host Southport in their Conference Indiana opener, and the Olympians travel to Seymour to begin their Hoosier Hills Conference schedule.
“The first two weeks didn’t really turn out the way we planned, but one of our goals all year has been to win the conference,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “We talked about, you have to flip the switch whether you win or lose. You have to be able to focus on the next opponent. So we’re going to continue to work on the things that need to get better from Week 1 and Week 2.”
East, which fell at Class 5A No. 5 Whiteland 28-7 in its opener, was blanked by North 28-0 last week. The Bull Dogs bounced back from a 43-20 loss at Gibson Southern, which now is ranked No. 1 in 3A, in its opener.
“I’m definitely proud of our kids from our rebound Week 1,” North coach Tim Bless said. “Not to take anything away from Columbus East — they’re a good football team, but I think we were certainly a better football team Week 2 than Week 1, and that’s going to be a goal of ours all year — to be a better version of ourselves than we were the week before.”
The Bull Dogs will be taking on a Southport team that has been routed 55-7 at 4A No. 1 Roncalli and 42-7 by Perry Meridian.
Southport quarterback Zach Shepherd has completed 18 of 34 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown. Christian VanVolkenburgh has carried 28 times for 86 yards and a score.
“Without a doubt, we’ll get Southport’s best shot,” Bless said. “They’ve had some scenarios where they’ve had kids out with injuries or quarantine. We expect them to be at full strength. We have to be ready to play and take care of what we can do. As the defending conference champion, there’s a target on our back, and that’s something we acknowledge.”
North’s Luke Hammons is 21 for 31 passing for 242 yards and four touchdowns and has carried 28 times for 119 yards and a score. Dyllan Redmon has 16 carries for 92 yards, and Keegan Castetter has 14 catches for 244 yards and two touchdowns.
The Bull Dogs will be playing their home opener.
“That’s huge,” Bless said. “We’ve been the road warriors the entire season, including our scrimmage. We’ll be glad to be back at the Max (Andress Field) and have the home-field advantage with the crowd our kids deserve.”
Meanwhile, East will be looking for its first win of the season. The Olympians have won or shared the HHC title 17 consecutive years and have won 14 straight outright conference titles and 96 consecutive HHC games.
Seymour is coached by former East lineman Tyson Moore.
“Our guys have to understand that we’re going to get everybody’s best shot in the conference,” Vogel said. “Tyson was a player here, so he knows how to do things and how to get their kids to play hard, so I know we’ll get their best shot. So we’re working to do our best and play our best game of the year against Seymour.”
East’s Ethan Duncan is 10 of 21 passing for 76 yards and has carried 34 times for 112 yards. Tryce Villarreal has 36 carries for 135 yards and a touchdown, and Ryan Buckler has three catches for 26 yards.
The Owls have been involved in a couple of high-scoring games, both of which resulted in losses on the road. They fell 56-26 to South Dearborn and 47-36 to Jeffersonville. Will Gray completed 22 of 46 passes for 336 yards and four touchdowns in last week’s loss at Jeffersonville.
“They’re a young football team, but they have a lot of resiliency, and there’s no quit in them,” Vogel said. “We know that they’re going to get 48 minutes out of their football team, so we have to be able to match that.”
