Indianapolis Cathedral fell behind for just the third time this season in high school football Friday night, but then scored 46 unanswered points to defeat Brebeuf Jesuit 49-7. With the homecoming win, the Class 5A top-ranked Fighting Irish improve their record to 8-0 heading into the regular season finale at unbeaten Class 6A number-one rated Center Grove.
Cathedral’s opening drive resulted in a 22-yard Ben Gomez field goal and an early 3-0 lead. Brebeuf responded with an 80-yard drive that ended when Drake Hagerman completed a 37-yard scoring pass to Brendan Petrie, putting the Braves ahead 7-3.
The Irish answered with a 78-yard drive of their own. Nathan McCahill’s 12-yard touchdown run and his two-point conversion pass to Parker Spellacy put Cathedral back in the lead 11-7. The Irish trailed for three minutes and 34 seconds, which, added to brief deficits against Carmel and Cincinnati St. Xavier, brought the total time trailing in eight games this season to 14 minutes and 25 seconds.
In the second quarter, McCahill threw scoring passes of 9 yards to Michael Page and 6 yards to Jaron Tibbs for a 25-7 halftime advantage. Cathedral’s defense scored its first points of the season when Jack Goheen sacked Hagerman in the end zone for a safety on the first play of the second half. Two plays and 43 seconds later, McCahill scored on 48-yard run to increase the lead to 34-7 with less than a minute elapsed in the third quarter.
With 7:32 remaining in the period, Brennan Wooten caught his first career touchdown pass, a 6-yard toss by McCahill. McCahill then completed a two-point conversion pass to Tibbs, making the margin 35 points and invoking a running clock for the remainder of the game. Danny O’Neil’s 1-yard scoring pass to David Ayers in the fourth quarter concluded the scoring.
McCahill completed 15 of 21 passes for 166 yards and ran for 86 more yards on nine carries. Page led nine Irish receivers who caught passes with five receptions for 54 yards. Jake Langdon rushed for 106 yards on ten attempts. In doing so, he passed the 1,500-yard rushing mark for his career.
Cathedral’s defense held the Braves to 135 yards of total offense including minus 10 yards rushing. The Irish have held their last six opponents to less than 70 yards on the ground.
Cathedral travels to Center Grove next Friday for the final game of the regular season. The Trojans came from behind Friday to prevail, 28-13, at Lawrence North and win the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference title. The Trojans are scoring an average of 46 points per game this season, while allowing less than seven points per contest. Cathedral won last year’s matchup, 14-9, to tie the all-time series between the two schools 4-4.