PLAINFIELD — Visiting Cathedral left little doubt about its dominance in Class 4A football as the Irish rolled over the host Quakers 48-21.
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Plainfield (8-4) came into the contest on an emotional high after downing perennial football power Indianapolis Roncalli a week earlier, but that magic faded and faded fast for Quakers who found themselves on the wrong end of a 34 point scoring barrage after jumping out to an early 7-0 lead.
Eliot Hughes scored the Quakers’ first touchdown from four yards out after a Cathedral fumble and personal foul penalty gave the Quakers a first and goal situation deep in Irish territory. But that touchdown was quickly overshadowed as Cathedral racked up 226 yards of total offense and four consecutive first half touchdowns compared to just 51 yards of offense by Plainfield.
Senior Kofi Hughes paced the visiting Irish with 2 touchdowns through the air and an additional two on the ground. The IU-bound recruit tallied 300 yards of total offense; more than double Plainfield’s total offensive output.
Things did not improve much for the Quakers in the second half as Cathedral struck yet again. However, Plainfield tailback Chandler James briefly rejuvenated Quaker fans with a 64-yard touchdown run. That score marked the first third quarter touchdown given up by the Irish all season, and Plainfield stayed within at least remote striking distance. A Cathedral turnover furthered the Quaker cause as James found the end-zone from five yards out for his second touchdown of the night to close the score to 41-21 Irish. But that was as close as Plainfield would get as Cathedral rolled its fourteenth sectional championship crown.
“We felt like we needed to make [Hughes] beat us in the pocket and he made some big plays there,” Plainfield coach Brian Woodard said. “You really can’t contain him, you just try to do what we did early on that first drive and see if you could force a turnover and we just didn’t do it enough.”
Woodard did credit his team with turning things around after a bumpy ride through the early half of the season which included back to back losses to Roncalli and Martinsville. “The expectations for this program have gotten quite lofty which is a good thing,” Woodard said. “Looking back on it the best thing that happened was losing to Martinsville and Roncalli and the way that we finished was an A season.”
Cathedral will move on the face off against Class 4A No. 13 New Palestine high school in next week’s regional. For Woodard, preparations for next year are just around the corner.
“We’ve got some kids that have talent and they have just got to buy in,” Woodard said. “Our success was started in the weight room and we’ll be back in there very soon.”
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