Knights joust but Central Catholic falls to Fort Wayne Bishop Luers in 2A semistate game

FORT WAYNE — Central Catholic junior quarterback Bobby Metzger found himself in an unfamiliar situation after having the time to roam and throw to open targets for the past nine weeks.

All the space Metzger had to pick and choose when to run was reduced to the size of a small elevator car amidst continual pressure by Fort Wayne Bishop Luers during the Class 2A semistate championship game on the road.

Metzger was hit repeatedly, threw two interceptions and Central Catholic's run game was silenced as it fell to Fort Wayne Bishop Luers 28-7.

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Bishop Luers (11-3) will attempt its 12th Class 2A state championship next Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium. It will play the winner of Saturday's contest between Southmont (8-5) and North Posey (12-1).

Senior Mickey Daring led Luers with two rushing touchdowns, senior Gio Jimenez had a touchdown run and senior Isaac Zay caught a 24-yard end zone pass from Kohen McKenzie.

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"You're not going to win these games unless you keep from losing them and we did not play our best game," Central Catholic coach Brian Nay said. "You're not going to come to Fort Wayne and go toe to toe with Luers if you're not completely dialed in. We weren't. We got what we got."

Central Catholic (10-4) made its first 2A Semistate Championship in just its second season after being in Class 1A class for much of the school's existence.

"I'm proud of this group," Nay said. "They pushed the program forward. We didn't end where our goal was to end but I can't say enough. This was one of the funnest years of my life. I'm really proud of these kids and what they've done this season."

Metzger and top receiver Ray Clayton will be seniors next year in the offense. Nay believes his team's offense can grow vastly after this loss.

"They can't rest on anything they've already accomplished because if you did, then you haven't done anything today," Nay said. "There's still so much work to be done to put ourselves in a position to do the things we want to do. I hope they hit the ground ready to work starting after Thanksgiving."

Central Catholic was held to under 50 yards rushing and didn't score its first touchdown until 3:31 remained in the fourth quarter. Metzger threw a 14-yard touchdown to senior Nick Page.

"I don't mean to be tough but our effort on offense was pretty disappointing," Nay said. "It was offense wide. It wasn't one particular play. We need to execute better, we have to coach them better. We got a long offseason to figure it out and I'm confident in our staff that they will figure it out."

Fort Wayne Bishop Luers took a second-quarter kickoff return to the 37-yard line in the second quarter leading to the Jimenez touchdown and took advantage of a short punt in the third quarter to position Daring.

"There's a lot of things we need to clean up and I'm going to take responsibility for these guys not being ready to play," Nay said. "Defensively I thought we had a good game plan but eventually the walls are going to start cracking. If you can't put points up at the end and I thought we play constipated football, you get what you get in the end."

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Lafayette Central Catholic football falls to Bishop Luers in semistate