Cathedral celebrated its centennial anniversary on Friday night with a thrilling 20-14 overtime football victory against Cincinnati St. Xavier at the University of Indianapolis. The Fighting Irish had lost 15 consecutive games to the Bombers. The win is only the second for Cathedral in 18 meetings with St. X.
On the first play of the second quarter, St. Xavier’s Jared Kreimer connected with Liam Clifford for a 16-yard touchdown pass to give the Bombers a 6-0 lead. The Irish blocked Kreimer’s point after kick attempt. Cathedral failed to score in the first half despite advancing inside the St. X 20-yard-line on two occasions.
Cathedral took the second half kickoff and marched 76 yards on just four plays. Orin Edwards concluded the drive by tossing a 32-yard scoring pass to Bo Sanders. Christian Alerding’s point after kick gave the Irish a 7-6 lead. Chon’Dre Cissell’s seven-yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter improved the margin to 14-6.
St. Xavier got one last chance when it gained possession of the ball on downs at its own 37-yard-line with just 27 seconds remaining in the game. The Bombers made the most of the opportunity. Wyatt Hudepohl completed three of five passes including a 22-yard scoring strike to Kreimer with one-second to play. Hudepohl then completed a three-yard pass to Marshall Lang for the two-point conversion sending the game to overtime.
St. Xavier possessed the ball first in the extra session, but missed a 27-yard field goal attempt following three incomplete passes. Cissell began the Cathedral possession with a two-yard run, which set up an Edwards’ shuffle pass to Sanders who swept around the right end and dove across the goal line for the winning points.
Despite being sacked seven time, Edwards completed 12 of 22 passes for 174 yards. Sanders had six receptions for 91 yards. Cissell rushed for 72 yards on 17 carries and, in doing so, passed the 2,000-yard career rushing mark.
Cathedral’s defense limited St. Xavier to just 28 rushing yards on 17 attempts, allowing just one-yard on the ground in the second half. The defense also prevented the Bombers from getting a first down on eight of nine 3rd down situations and on two fourth down conversion attempts.
With the win, the Irish improve their record to 2-3 on the season, while the Bombers fall to 2-2. Cathedral travels to Jeffersonville next Friday. The Irish defeated the Class 6-A Red Devils 48-7 last year and 57-0 in 1927 in the only two previous games between the schools. Jeffersonville’s is 1-4 this season.