Ethan Duncan
Columbus East lit up the scoreboard frequently and often against Hoosier Hills Conference foe Jennings County Friday night.
The Olympians ended the game by halftime, giving the Panthers a near zero chance at a comeback with a running clock in the second half to coast to a 49-0 victory.
The only thing that went wrong for East (2-2, 2-0) in the game was discipline. The Olympians committed too many mental errors, with most of them accounting on or before the snap. It didn’t play a factor in the outcome of the game, but it is something that coach Eddie Vogel will need to clean up for future games.
“We had two procedure penalties, and I think two illegal snaps when the ball just slipped out of the center’s hands. It results in a negative play,” Vogel said. “It’s something that’s haunted us the first three weeks, so it’s something in big games that can be the difference in winning or losing. You’ve got to be able to finish drives, and that’s something we’re addressing in practice.”
Javeon Smith
East’s running attack couldn’t be stopped early. Javeon Smith and Tyler Weller shared the workload for much of the first half. Smith totaled two rushing touchdowns in the first half, and Weller had a touchdown in the first quarter.
The Olympians got on the board in the first three minutes of the game with a Smith run from 11 yards out for a quick 7-0 lead. After the Panthers (1-3, 0-2) caused a turnover, Devon Tekulve caught a 34-yard pass from quarterback Ethan Duncan to increase lead to 14-0 with 8:18 left in the opening quarter. The third touchdown of the quarter for the Olympians came with five minutes left with a Weller 2-yard run to increase the lead to 21-0.
In the second quarter, East kept the offense coming when Jared Brooks caught a 26-yard pass from Duncan to make it 28-0 with 10:52 left to play in the first half. The Olympians built the lead to 35-0 when Smith got his second touchdown of the game with a 6-yard run to make it 35-0 with 4:13 left to play in the half.
“We started having good practices,” Smith said. “As soon as we started stacking those, the line started backing me.”
As good as the Olympians offense was, the defense did its job in forcing several turnovers and posting the first shutout of the season.
East now turns its focus to New Albany, a team that defeated them a year ago. Even though the season started off slow for the Olympians, they are looking to have turned the corner.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted to start the season. I reminded them this week that in 2018, we started 0-2 and those scores for the first two games were very similar, and that team ended up being a Final Four team,” Vogel said. “All of our goals that we had for the season are still ahead of us. We want to win conference and we want to make a deep run in the tournament. It’s a choice these guys got to make everyday. It’s individual choices. I feel like if we can do that, we got a chance to be pretty good.”
