Ethan Duncan
NEW ALBANY — Columbus East used an opportunistic defense and three total touchdowns from Ethan Duncan Friday night to take control of the Hoosier Hills Conference race with a 42-7 win at New Albany.
Duncan threw for a touchdown and scored on two long runs. Meanwhile, the Olympian defense took advantage of six turnovers, including a pair of fumble returns for touchdowns and a pair of interceptions by Devon Tekulve, and stopped the Bulldogs on downs three other times in improving to 3-2 overall and 3-0 in the HHC.
Devon Tekulve
East got out to about as good a start as they could have hoped. After holding the Bulldogs on their first possession, the Olympians went three-and-out, but Seth Lankey’s punt buried New Albany at its 1-yard line. On the next play, Devon Tekulve came up with an interception at the 24.
East needed only a couple of plays to get in the end zone. Ethan Duncan found Nico Alvarez for a 25-yard touchdown strike with 5:17 left in the first quarter.
Caaden Gault
Nathaniel Hedrick’s ensuing kickoff left the Bulldogs at their 8-yard-line. Landin Jarvis forced a New Albany fumble on its second play, and Caaden Gault returned it 8 yards for a touchdown and a quick 14-0 lead.
“The kicking game set up some of that,” East coach Eddie Vogel said. “Seth Lankey pinned them down inside the 1. I thought Nate Hedrick had some pretty good kickoffs, giving them bad field position. Special teams were pretty big tonight.”
The Bulldogs then drove for their first score of the game to cut the lead in half. But the Olympians answered with a 52-yard quarterback draw from Duncan to go back up by two touchdowns.
New Albany had a chance to cut into the lead, but after reaching East 1-yard line, fumbled, and Tristan Davis recovered. The score remained 21-7 at the half.
The Olympians put the game away when it scored the first two times in had the ball in the second half. Javeon Smith ran 2 yards for a score, and after East got it back, Duncan scored on his second 52-yard run of the night for a 35-7 lead with 7:32 left in the third quarter.
“We were able to get Ethan loose a little bit tonight, and I thought our offensive line wore them down in the second half,” Vogel said. “I was pleased with both sides of the ball. We kind of were a bend-but-don’t break defense. We made some plays.”
Tyler Weller
Both teams’ offenses stagnated from that point. the Olympians finished off the scoring when Tyler Weller returned a fumble 60 yards for a touchdown with 2:28 left in the game.
East will be back in Floyd County again next week when it visits Floyd Central.
“We still have one of our goals intact, which is to win the conference,” Vogel said. “We have a lot of improvement to do, but we’re going to celebrate this one. We’ll get back to work and become a better version of ourselves next well.”
