IHSAA football: Center Grove vs. Cathedral 'never just a normal end of the season.'

Maybe it’s a sign from the heavens the red-hot rivalry between high school football powers Center Grove and Cathedral needs buckets of rain when these teams meet.

“I’d rather have sunny and warm,” Center Grove coach Eric Moore said.

There was no “Mud Bowl” Friday night like there was two years ago at Arlington. This time, it was played on the turf at Butler University’s Sellick Bowl as Class 6A second-ranked Center Grove held off a furious fourth-quarter rally for a 45-38 victory over No. 7 Cathedral.

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But just like two years ago, there was plenty of emotion in the rain. That pretty much goes for any time these teams meet.

“There’s been a lot of memorable experience (against Cathedral),” Center Grove senior linebacker Owen Bright said. “Obviously my sophomore year was the ‘Mud Bowl.’ Last year, they came back in the fourth quarter and got the best of us, and then obviously we got the best of them in the semistate. But it’s never just a ‘normal’ end of the season.”

Bright called it a chance to “run into the playoffs” with a win over rival Cathedral. Center Grove (8-1) did just that, although it was more like a series of sprints than a smooth and steady mile run. Even after it looked like the Trojans had finally taken command with a three-touchdown lead, 45-24, on an 11-yard touchdown run by Austin Hennessy with 1:52 left, it turned out the fun was just beginning.

On the Cathedral sideline, senior tight end Zach Meeks told his team it was not over. A minute later, Meeks caught a 24-yard touchdown pass from Danny O’Neil to cut Center Grove’s lead to 45-31 with 52 seconds left.

Cathedral’s Jackson Lockhart then recovered an onside kick, catching off a bounce in stride. Cathedral needed just three plays to score again, making it 45-38 on a 25-yard touchdown pass from O’Neil to Albren Johnson with 30 seconds remaining.

“Our kids just didn’t quit,” Cathedral coach Bill Peebles said. “We got the onside kick and it gave us some momentum.”

Cathedral needed one more. With all of Center Grove’s players pushed up within 20 yards of the kicker, Peebles called for a long kickoff with the hope the ball would bounce around and the Irish could recover. But Center Grove’s Patrick Smith got to the ball first and knocked it out of bounds inside the Trojans’ 5-yard-line.

Cathedral (6-3) had all three timeouts remaining, but Tyler Cherry’s 13-yard pass to Hennessy on 3rd-and-4 allowed the Trojans to run the clock out, putting a bow on a regular season that saw the Trojans play their first five games against out-of-state opponents.

“That’s a good high school football game between two great schools, man,” Moore said. “That stuff gets overlooked. We don’t have to travel anywhere. It’s all right here in our backyard.”

Cherry, a Duke commit, was a star all night for the Trojans. The senior was 19-for-23 passing for 336 yards and four TDs with Noah Coy catching three of those scores and eight passes for 151 yards in all. Cherry’s 63-yard bomb to Coy put Center Grove ahead 16-0 on the final play of the first quarter. It looked like the rout might be on.

“Tyler is an unbelievably good football player and so are their receivers,” Peebles said. “They have a special connection with those guys, but we gave up a couple of easy ones and a bad snap (on punt for a safety) for two points. So right there you are 16 down right away.”

Cathedral held from there, though, scoring on a 54-yard pass from O’Neil to Keith Long early in the second quarter and trailing just 16-7 going into halftime. Center Grove fumbled the second half kickoff, which Cathedral turned into a 33-yard field goal by Van Kirsiloff to make it 16-10.

But it seemed like the Center Grove offense always had an answer. Cherry found Coy for a 15-yard touchdown pass to cap an eight-play, 70-yard drive to make it 23-10. The Trojans then drove 92 yards and Cherry’s 1-yard quarterback sneak put the Trojans up by 21.

“I’m proud of our offense tonight for just being diligent and not making mistakes,” Moore said. “We made very few, if any, mistakes. We ran the ball hard, threw it well. The weather didn’t affect anybody but me. And our defense made big plays when it had to.”

Cathedral again rallied, getting a 58-yard touchdown pass from O’Neil to Johnson with 3:13 in the third quarter to cut the lead to 31-17. After an onside kick, Jalen Bonds scored on a 4-yard run to make it 31-24 Center Grove with 59 seconds in the third.

But again Cherry, Coy and Co. came through with a 10-play, 62-yard drive. Cherry’s 8-yard TD pass to Coy again made it a two-score game.

O’Neil was 23-for-42 passing for 331 yards and four TDs. Devaughn Slaughter caught 10 balls for 65 yards and Meeks had seven catches for 108 yards and a score.

It could be the first of two meetings between the teams, who would again meet in the semistate round. Bring on the rain. Or snow.

“It’s heated, but I think we respect each other,” Peebles said. “They have been the team to beat in Indiana for the last four years and we’ve been knocking on the door and beat them once and been close a couple times. We were close again tonight.”

Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indiana high school football: Center Grove beats Cathedral in finale