Class 5-A top-rated Indianapolis Cathedral built a 24-0 first-half lead Friday night in high school football at Columbus North, then played even the rest of the game for a 37-13 victory over the Bull Dogs. The Irish accumulated 411 yards on offense, including a season-best 250 yards rushing, while the Cathedral defense held Columbus North to just 163 total yards.
Michael Page put the Irish on the board midway through the opening quarter when he took a shovel pass from Danny O’Neil and ran down the visiting sideline 28 yards for a touchdown. Ben Gomez kicked the first of three field goals with a minute remaining in the period to give Cathedral a 10-0 lead.
Early in the second quarter, Seth Mencer ran 80 yards for his first touchdown of the season. On the next Irish drive, O’Neil connected with Daniel Hughes on a 26-yard scoring pass. Bull Dogs’ quarterback Luke Hammons answered with a 46-yard TD pass to Damon Edwards, cutting the lead to 24-7 at the half.
Hammons closed the deficit to 24-13 when he added a 16-yard scoring run in the third quarter. Two more Gomez field goals and a 5-yard scoring run from Hosea Smith provided the final winning margin for the Irish.
Mencer rushed for 138 yards on 16 attempts to lead the ground game. O’Neil completed 16 of 24 passes for 161 yards and Page caught six passes for 82 yards. Gomez converted 3 of 4 field goal attempts. In doing so, he tied Scottie Miller’s school record for most field goals in a career with 17, which was set in 2009.
With the victory, Cathedral improves its record to 5-0 having defeated four Class 6-A opponents this season. The Irish defense has allowed just 6.8 points per game to lead all Indiana Class 5-A teams for least points allowed per game.
Cathedral hosts Hammond Morton at Arlington Middle School next Friday for Homecoming. Kickoff is 7:00 pm. It’s the first ever meeting between the two schools. The Governors are 1-4 following a 20-14 Great Lakes Conference win over Gary West Saturday.