Columbus East was all set to celebrate senior night and its program-best No. 4 state ranking Thursday night, but Madison came to crash the party.
The Cubs held the Olympians scoreless for the first 33 minutes before East got on the board. The Olympians led only 1-0 at halftime, but opened things up in the second half to post a 5-0 Hoosier Hills Conference victory.
“The first half, we kind of tried to figure out what they were doing,” East senior midfielder Jorge Nieto said. “Then, the second half, we came out, we got another one, and we kept going. We weren’t going to stop. With our student section cheering us on and the parents, and it being senior night, we knew we needed to take care of business, and we did.”
With a pair of second-half assists, Nieto broke the school career assist record. He had tied the record last week.
“It feels great being able to beat that record, but it’s not just me,” Nieto said. “It’s a team effort. Obviously, I couldn’t have done it without the whole team contributing to the goals and putting the ball in the back of the net.”
Another senior, Zach Roberts, recorded four saves in extending his own school career shutout record.
“It wasn’t just me,” Roberts said. “It’s everyone’s shutout. Huge shoutout to Jorge for breaking the (assist) record and then extending it. It’s great having two school records broken by two members of the same senior class. It means a lot.”
After missing a couple of scoring opportunities, the Olympians (10-0-2, 5-0) finally got on the board in the 34th minute when Chris Quisneberry finished a pass from Logan Cline. The pair reversed roles in the 45th minute, with Cline scoring off a pass from Quisenberry for a 2-0 lead.
Two minutes later, Eric Stiles headed in a corner kick from Nieto. Quisenberry added another goal off a pass from Nieto in the 63rd minute, and Branson Young finished off the scoring in the 68th minute when he headed in a cross from Leyton Erfmeier.
“We knew over the course of 80 minutes, we’d be the better team, and I really like the way we played today,” East coach Brad Barber said. “When we got the ball on the ground and combined and used our combinations to break down the defense, we got a number of very good goal-scoring opportunities, and we knew if we continued to knock on that door, we could break it open in the second half.”
