Football Sectional

For once I was home on Friday, and not sitting on an airplane somewhere. Both Columbus teams were playing in their respective Sectional SemiFinal games right here in town, and I had my first chance since they played each other way back in the second game of the season to catch a game.

I was tempted to visit the closer team on the East side, but decided to stay with the team I've followed for so many years, including those years my middle son was a team member, and head up to the North side.

The game opened up with an impressive touchdown drive by the North squad, leaving me the impression that this game could go pretty well. Then the opponents from Bloomington North got the ball and marched it down the field in the opposite direction for their own touchdown.

It was beginning to look like a shootout. Bloomington got up two scores, 28-14, but a nice Columbus touchdown drive followed by a quick Bloomington turnover and score brought the teams even at halftime, 28-28.

The third quarter was where things began to unravel for the Columbus team. Not at first, as Bloomington's first possession was stymied by a rededicated Columbus defense for a 3-and-out, and the Columbus offense drove down the field for what looked like the go-ahead score.

But a fourth down scramble by the quarterback, Kyle Kamman, was brought back on a holding penalty I didn't see from the stands. Now I'm generally a pretty good observer of such things, and if there was an obvious hold on the play, it seems I would have seen it. In any case, I didn't see it, but have to assume the referree did.

Instead of a go-ahead touchdown, Columbus North had to punt.

And Bloomington North scored almost immediately on their next possession. A short sideline pass led to a 66-yard scamper to the end zone that made the hapless Columbus defense look embarassingly like the Keystone Cops.

Columbus' offense struggled to regain momentum in the quarter, and would never be able to catch the Bloomington team, which seemed to get stronger as the second half wore on.

As in the drive-killing holding penalty, the officials contributed to the outcome at least twice more.

During the extra point following Bloomington's first third-quarter touchdown, a Columbus player dove across in front of the kicker to attempt a block and fell to the ground just in front of the holder. The kicker saw his opportunity and let his momentum carry him forward so he tripped over the crumpled Columbus player, drawing the "Roughing the Kicker" penalty.

Assessed on the kickoff, Bloomington went ahead and called for the Onside Kick, which was a low-risk, high-reward call. The onside kick was successful, but at least 3 of the Bloomington kickoff team members were clearly and obviously offside on the play. There was no official watching the kickoff line, so no penalty was called.

Bloomington North promptly scored again to go up by 2 touchdowns.

Then the Columbus speedster Trace Fetterer(sp?) caught the next kickoff near the goal line and raced the length of the field for an apparent touchdown that would have put his team right back in contention.

Except for the flag. Another holding call on Columbus North, again for what seemed to me a phantom hold, as I saw nothing of the sort.

In the end, that call was all that was needed to assure a Bloomington North victory. Columbus' defense was missing its two starting linebackers, and Bloomington could run the ball easily through the Columbus defense and run out the clock.

Columbus managed a late touchdown, but much too late, dropping the game by the final score of 45-35.

Crosstown rivals Columbus East were embarassed by Whiteland by a score too outrageous for me to reproduce.

So there will be no Columbus-based Sectional Championship game next week. At least I picked the better game of the two to shiver through on Friday night.