After digging itself a 19-0 hole Friday night, Columbus North gave itself a glimmer of hope when it got on the board with a touchdown midway through the second quarter.

Russ Yeast and his Center Grove teammates put those comeback hopes to rest.

Yeast, who last week committed to Louisville, scored two long touchdowns in the final 3:45 of the first half to give the Trojans a 34-7 halftime lead in what would become a 41-14 sectional final victory.

“We sure dug a hole, and that’s disappointing,” North coach Tim Bless said. “But our kids are a resilient bunch and fought back there a little bit. We just couldn’t get back off the field soon enough to give our offense another opportunity.”

Yeast was a one-man highlight reel for the Class 6A No. 3 Trojans (10-1). He carried 10 times for 123 yards and two touchdowns and caught three passes for 114 yards and two scores. All of his receiving yards and all but 14 of his rushing yards came in the first half.

The backbreaker was a 90-yard touchdown run with 1:04 left in the first half after a Mark Salle-Tabor punt pinned Center Grove at its 10-yard line.

“To have a chance against a team this athletic, you have to make them earn everything,” Bless said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case tonight. They blasted us with multiple big plays in the first have and really opened up the game.”

After putting together an 11-play, 69-yard drive, capped by a 3-yard run by Yeast, to start the game, the Trojans used quick strikes to score the next two times it had the ball. Jack Kellums found a wide open Kaleb Hennessy 15 yards behind the defense for a 66-yard touchdown and a 13-0 lead.

Then after Center Grove threw Mitchell Burton for a 2-yard loss on fourth-and-1 from the Trojans 44, Kellams threw a swing pass to Yeast on the right sideline. Yeast made a couple of moves and broke back to the left and ran into the left corner of the end zone for a 19-0 lead with 2:37 left in the first quarter.

After stopping Center Grove on its next possession, the 6A No. 6 Bull Dogs (9-2) got on the board. On third-and-goal from the 5, Triston Perry was pressured, rolled out to the right, looked back to his left and found a wide-open Burton in the end zone.

The Trojans then answered when Kellums found Yeast behind the defense for a 62-yard scoring strike.

“When you take things away from us, you’ve got to give us other things,” Center Grove coach Eric Moore said.

North couldn’t pick up a first down and punted. Yeast then went 90 yards to give the Trojans a commanding halftime lead.

Center Grove put the game on ice on the first series of the second half when Parker Ferguson returned an interception 17 yards for a score.

North put together an 11-play, 86-yard drive to score its second touchdown. Burton took it the final yard.

“We moved the ball tonight,” Bless said. “The points probably don’t match up to the number of yards, and that’s a tremendous defense we went against tonight. You get past midfield, you need to be able to finish drives, and especially in the scoring zone. Their defense buckled down and made the plays when they needed to.”

Burton finished with 122 yards on 30 carries. Perry completed 20 of 36 passes for 149 yards, with Trey Vincent catching a career-high nine passes for 72 yards.

“They were stopping our offense,” Burton said. “We just tried everything we could and came up a little short.”

INDIANAPOLIS — One speed was all the Edinburgh girls basketball team used in its season-opening win against Indianapolis Metropolitan on Friday night.

Full speed.

That didn’t hurt the Lancers one bit, as they cruised to an easy 53-25 win against the host Pumas.

It was the second straight year the Lancers opened up the season with a win.

“This wasn’t a pretty game,” Edinburgh coach Amy Macy-Schilling said. “But I saw some things I liked, and we hustled and did some nice things. I do wish the girls would have been more patient; however, right now they only know one speed, and that’s fast.”

That quickness paid off against the undersized and inexperienced Pumas, as the Lancers raced out to a 16-4 first quarter lead thanks to some nice ball movement, good shot selection and a defense that went after every ball that was thrown or bounced.

In fact, Edinburgh’s defense seemed to know where the ball was going before the Pumas did.

The Lancers forced 10 first-quarter turnovers.

Edinburgh’s lead doubled at halftime, but then the Lancers hit a rut offensively, and soon they were guilty of committing several unforced turnovers and missing easy shots.

Macy-Schilling also noticed the Lancers were getting sloppy at times in other areas.

“We weren’t really staying out in front of (Metro) and we were forgetting to block out on rebounds,” Macy-Schilling said. “And we missed a lot of layups that might have gone in had we not been in such a hurry to get the shots off.”

Edinburgh ended up with 24 turnovers — typical for a season-opening game, but Macy-Schilling felt the tally could have been a lot less had the Lancers slowed down a bit.

The turnovers didn’t really hurt Edinburgh until the fourth quarter, but as the Lancers had built up a huge lead by then, it didn’t really matter.

Besides, Metro had a staggering 38 turnovers.

Senior Brianna Howard led the Lancers and all scorers with 13 points. Sophomore Sidney Beier came off the bench to score 10 points.

“Our bench really contributed (tonight),” Macy-Schilling said. “We’re going to be deep this year and I did like the leadership we showed.”

Edinburgh plays Indianapolis Lutheran Tuesday night in its home opener.