EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (WKBN) – East Palestine senior quarterback Owen Jurjavcic has led the Bulldogs to a 5-3 start and one of the best starts the football program has seen in years.
“We lost two games, so we ended up being 3-3 and I just told everyone we got to keep our heads up, we got to go because we want the playoffs,” Jurjavcic said. “So we came out, won two weeks, two big weeks, and we’re looking at Week 9.”
The Bulldogs ended Week 8 with a rivalry overtime win against Columbiana , 34-28. The two teams play for the Traveling Trophy, which East Palestine hasn’t owned since 2017.
“It was insane — not just to the guys, I think just to the community, the school — it was everybody,” said East Palestine Head Coach Mike Demster. “It meant a lot to everybody.”
Demster said the Bulldogs narrowly beat Wellsville 28-27 but it was Jurjavcic who put them over the edge.
“He’ll be the first to tell you it’s this weight room right here that’s made him the runner he is,” Demster said. “I would tell him, ‘Hey, just take a day off. Your body needs a day off.’ He would say, ‘OK,’ and then he’d be here the next day, lifting. So he never actually took those days off. He never missed the weight room in the three years that I’ve been here.”
Inside the East Palestine weight room, the football program has a hall of records. Jurjavcic is already enshrined on the wall as a 1,000-yard passer.
Coach Demster said in the win over Columbiana, the star quarterback reached another milestone.
“Last Friday night, Owen did break the single-season rushing yard record that was held by Jim Lindner in 1956.”
Linder held the single-season rushing record of 1,602 yards for 68 years. In the 2024 season, Jurjavcic now holds the record with over 1,630 rushing yards and counting.
The Bulldog standout is also just two touchdowns away from tying Lindner’s other 68-year-old record of 27 touchdowns in a single season.
“I think it’s pretty sweet,” Jurjavcic said. “I’d like to see someone else come up, beat it, and have more and more people keep breaking the record. That’d be pretty cool.”
Jurjavcic said the records just show how far the team has come as the Bulldogs are looking forward to their first playoff appearance since 2017.
“Because I want to see the community build upon this,” he said. “I don’t want to be the only one to have the record because records are meant to be broken.”
“He’ll go down in East Palestine history as one of our best,” Demster said. “I’m sure we’ll find a way to commemorate that.”
East Palestine plays next at home against Leetonia on Friday, Oct. 18 at 7 p.m.
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