COLUMBUS — A series of special teams plays in the second quarter doomed Seymour in the Owls eventual 34-12 loss at Columbus East on Friday night.

With a 12-7 lead, Jack Pennington had to punt from the back of his own end zone, and East’s Devon Tekulve returned it 28 yards for a touchdown. Then, Kyle Hileman fumbled the ensuing kickoff and East’s Braden Isbell recovered.

The Olympians turned that into a score as Ethan Duncan found Jared Brooks in the back of the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown.

That gave East a 21-12 lead at halftime, and the Owls struggled to recover.

“Usually the team that wins that area can separate themselves in good games,” head coach Tyson Moore said. “I was disappointed because we came out so hot and did good things in that first quarter and even going into the second quarter, and then the wheels kind of fell off.”

Moore was right about the Owls’ hot start.

Seymour struck first when Bret Perry found Pennington for an 11-yard touchdown. After starting 0-3, Perry went 4-5 for 53 yards on Seymour’s second drive to get the Owls in the end zone.

East jumped offside on the PAT attempt, so Seymour went for two but the Owls didn’t get it and took a 6-0 lead.

The Olympians stuck right back. Duncan found Blake Borkhart off play-action for a 12-yard touchdown with 6.3 seconds left in the first quarter. East took a 7-6 lead after one.

Seymour started the second quarter with a bang. Off a hitch-and-go route, Perry threw a beautiful ball to Pennington, who caught it over two defenders and took it 61 yards for a touchdown.

“Jack made some good plays out there,” Moore said. “He just went out there and caught a contested ball.”

The Owls failed a second two-point conversion and took a 12-7 lead with 11:04 left in the second quarter. It concluded a streak of six-straight completed passes for Perry for 118 yards.

Unfortunately, that was the last good thing for the Owls in the first half. That’s when the string of special teams events doomed the Owls the rest of the quarter.

East led 21-12 at halftime, and since Pennington’s 61-yard TD with 11 minutes left in the second quarter, the Owls gained negative one yards the rest of the half.

After holding East to a field goal to start the second half, the Owls had another tough mistake. As Pennington was coming in motion across the field, the ball was snapped into his leg and East recovered the fumble. That led to a 1-yard TD run from Duncan, and East led 31-12 with 5:50 left in the third.

“They’re always gonna make you pay. Good teams are always gonna make you pay,” Moore said. “You only have so many possessions in a game, and you can’t do anything to lose possession. It was just one of those games. We had some fight in us for awhile, we did some good things, but the bad things far out-weighed the good things.”

East added one more field goal and held Seymour scoreless the rest of the second half.

Perry threw 9 for 26 for 193 yards and two touchdowns. Pennington caught both those touchdowns as he had four catches for 116 yards. After rushing for over 100 yards last week, Perry could only muster 21 yards this week.

“I don’t think we did a very good job of staying composed in the second half,” Moore said. “It was very frustrating.”

The Owls fall to 1-2 on the season and 1-1 in the Hoosier Hills Conference. Next up, Seymour will host Floyd Central next Friday.

“The good news is we’re by no means out of the conference picture,” Moore said. “It just got harder, but we need to get on track next week and have a great week of practice.”