It’s now or never for the Columbus North football team.
The Class 6A No. 7 Bull Dogs have their best chance at trying to capture their first sectional title in 17 years, but they’ll have the toughest path to get there. It begins Friday when they host Franklin Central in a sectional semifinal.
There’s no doubt it’s North’s best season record-wise since 2018, when they were 8-1 in the regular season. There could have been the possibility of this year’s 8-1 team going unbeaten in the regular season if they weren’t derailed by so many injuries.
North coach Logan Haston made health a top priority during the team’s bye week last week. The Bull Dogs spent more time in the film room studying and retooling some of the offensive and defensive sets.
“This is a great chance to get them fresh going into the tournament. I think another great thing is being able to refine some of the technique and the fundamentals,” Haston said. “So much of what we do is about scheme and game-planning for our opponent, and sometimes you often overlook some little details about yourselves, so that’s why we’re trying to get back to the roots (last week) with those things.”
On offense, Franklin Central (5-3) has totaled 998 yards through the air and 1,043 yards on the ground. The Flashes defense has eight fumble recoveries and seven interceptions this year.
Franklin Central averaged 19.3 points per game during the regular season and allowed 23.9 points defensively.
“I’m really impressed with their defense. They’re extremely fast. The way they fly to the football is pretty impressive. They’re really well coached in that regard,” Haston said. “On offense, I think one thing that they’re very good at what they do. They’re not super complex with their schemes, but they just run their base stuff at a really high level. There’s a lot of merit to that in coaching. Both sides of the ball present challenges for us.”
As much as the offense has done its part with 1,731 passing and 1,761 rushing, a big reason why North is Conference Indiana champions is its defense. The Bull Dogs have produced two shutouts and a critical defensive stop to preserve a win against Bloomington North in double overtime.
Columbus North averaged 35.8 points offensively and is giving up only 14.7 points defensively.
“Our defense has been awesome all season of wreaking havoc and making teams uncomfortable, especially quarterbacks, and I don’t think that changes for this game at all,” Haston said. “(Franklin Central is) balanced and likes to have a mixture of run and pass. If we can try to make them one-dimensional and stop the run and force them into some third-and-long situation where they’re not as comfortable, I think that’s where our defense has shown to be really successful this season.”
Haston said at the beginning of the season, the team’s three goals were to be city champions, conference champions and sectional champions. They’ve accomplished two of the goals thus far and hope to get the third.
While many will say the Bull Dogs should have no problem beating Franklin Central, but the Flashes are much better than they’re perceived.
While Franklin Central is unranked in the final AP poll, analytically, the Jeff Sagarin Rating has the Flashes as only a one-point underdog. Franklin Central played the seventh-toughest schedule in the state against a stacked Hoosier Crossroads Conference, losing to Class 6A No. 4 Brownsburg and 6A No. 3 Westfield. The Flashes defeated Fishers and 6A No. 8 Hamilton Southeastern, which in turn defeated Brownsburg in the final week of the season. North was 26th in strength of schedule.
Should the Bull Dogs prevail, they’d likely visit Center Grove, who has been a thorn is the Bull Dogs side, in next week’s sectional final. But this is the most vulnerable the Trojans have been in over a decade. The Sagarin Rating has Center Grove as a six-point favorite should the two teams meet. The Trojans also played the toughest schedule in the state, according to the Sagarin Rating.
It’s boom or bust the next two weeks for North if it wants to be considered one of the top teams in 6A.
“This is our next challenge ahead of us. We’re very proud of our 8-1 season, but we also understand that to really gain respect around the state, it’s going to have to happen these next couple of weeks,” Haston said. “We’ve got some tough tasks ahead of us, but our guys thrive under that underdog mentality, and I think they’re really excited to shock the state.”
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