JEFFERSONVILLE — Columbus North did not have a sparkling regular-season record, but the Bull Dogs schedule is set up to prepare them for the tournament.
Monday night, North opened Class 3A Jeffersonville Sectional play with its highest scoring output of the season in a 5-0 first-round win against Jennings County.
“I think our schedule makes us prepared for this sectional,” North coach Tom Pollert said. “We play top teams to get us prepared for this week. We’re ready to take all comers.”
The Bull Dogs (7-10-1) advance to face Floyd Central (9-4) in Wednesday’s first semifinal. The other semifinal will match tonight’s first-round winners from the Jeffersonville-Seymour and Columbus East-New Albany games.
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Jennings (2-15-1) held North scoreless for the first 16 minutes on Monday. The Panthers just missed putting the first goal on the board in the eighth minute when a free kick from Dylan Boswell found Daniel Redmond, who put it just over the crossbar.
The Bull Dogs got on the board in the 17th minute when Sotaro Kaneda scored off a cross from Fraser Swan. Graham Keele made it 2-0 in the 30th minute when he finished a pass from Zach Friend, and North led 2-0 at halftime.
Keele then got loose twice on breakaways in the first 15 minutes of the second half to notch a hat trick. He scored off lead passes from Kaneda in the 46th minute and Swan in the 55th minute.
“I think that for the first half, we were sort of playing down to their level, and we didn’t put enough pressure on them,” Keele said. “So we knew in the second half that we needed to come out and finish the game early, and that’s what we did. We’re ready to start looking forward to Wednesday night now.”
North’s final goal came in the 62nd minute when Andrew Goble scored off an assist from Luke Schneider.
The Bull Dogs outshot the Panthers 24-5, putting 17 shots on goal to one for Jennings. Noah Kestler played the first half in goal for North and made one save, while Colvin Iorio played the first 34 minutes of the second half, and Jared Marquez played the final six minutes in goal.
Dreagen Ison made nine of his 12 saves in the first half to keep the Panthers in the game.
“He made some really good saves,” Jennings coach Brad Morris said. “After the first 10 minutes, they just kept getting opportunities, and we were getting broken down right in the middle of the field and within our own goal box. It was just a matter of time before they started scoring.”
