Cathedral comeback stuns Center Grove

By Phillip B. Wilson

GREENWOOD — Center Grove was one yard away from seizing a seemingly insurmountable 23-point lead in the fourth quarter against a visiting Cathedral squad overcome by mistakes in the middle quarters.

Somehow, the visiting Irish got a goal-line stop on the rush.

But what transpired after that play was beyond improbable.

Cathedral scored 27 unanswered points on three Danny O’Neil touchdown passes and a blocked-punt score in the final 9 minutes and 2 seconds to stun Center Grove 40-29 on Friday night.

“Improbable is an understatement,” said fifth-year Cathedral coach Bill Peebles. “Just the way we won it, I’d have to put it at the top of any of my games in my Cathedral tenure.”

That’s saying something, considering the Irish won Class 5A state titles in each of the past two seasons. But this incredible comeback came against a Center Grove powerhouse that won the last two Class 6A state crowns and had not lost on its home field since 2019. The Trojans had a 35-game winning streak against Indiana opponents snapped.

Perhaps they will meet again in the playoffs, now that Cathedral is in Class 6A. The Irish entered with a No. 3 ranking, one spot behind Center Grove.

“They had to make great plays to come back and they did,” 24th-year Center Grove coach Eric Moore said of the Irish. “We didn’t do what it took to finalize the game. Credit goes to them. Hopefully we get another shot at them.”

O’Neil was the offensive catalyst with five touchdown passes, the game-winning score coming with 50.8 seconds remaining as the junior quarterback floated a 35-yard bomb to senior David Avers in the back of the end zone for a 33-29 lead. Just one play earlier, without any timeouts and facing a do-or-die situation, O’Neil converted a fourth-and-10 pass to senior wide receiver Jaron Tibbs for 33 yards.

“I’m not going to say it wasn’t hard,” O’Neil said. “I’m sure there was a point where everyone wanted to put their heads down and sulk. Nothing was going our way. But we kept our heads up. We just came together. I’m so proud of this team.”

O’Neil knew when the Center Grove safety followed another receiver running a vertical route that Avers would be one-on-one deep. He hoisted the deep throw toward Avers, who adjusted to the flight of the pass against a closing defender and made the catch.

“That’s what we’re taught to do,” Avers said of adjusting to a defender whose back was turned and couldn’t see the pass coming. “I threw a hand up. Danny saw I had the corner beat over top and he just let it go. He knew what I could do.

“It was an unbelievable rally as a team. We never gave up.”

O’Neil overcame three interceptions by completing 24 of 43 passes for 393 yards.

“I’ve never been a part of anything like this,” O’Neil said. “This team is special.”

Center Grove senior Jalen Thomeson rushed for two touchdowns and his 34-yard punt return score pushed the Trojans’ lead to 29-13 with 5:55 remaining in the third quarter.

A triumphant Cathedral rally still seemed a remote possibility after O’Neil threw a 22-yard TD pass to Tibbs to cut the deficit to 29-19 with 6:15 to play in the final quarter. The play before that, Center Grove defensive back Michael Soderdahl appeared to come down with an interception, but the referee ruled a simultaneous catch and the Irish retained possession.

Another pivotal play came after Center Grove went three-and-out on the ensuing possession. Hosia Smith broke through to block the punt and Sterling Smith scooped up the football at the 4-yard line and scored. The deficit was down to 29-26.

“We sent everybody except for the returner,” Peebles said of the punt rush. “We had to get it.”

Center Grove (7-2) still could have put the game away late, but a fourth-and-15 pass for what would have been a first down was dropped.

“We’ll look at it and we’ll get better,” Moore said. “We’ve got two weeks to simmer on it. That’s what we need. We need some kind of little push to go into the playoffs. The last two years, it’s been undefeated season and championship. Congratulations to Cathedral. It was a great comeback.”

Once ahead, Cathedral (7-1) got the ball back in one play when Michael Jones made a diving interception on a tipped pass that went through the arms of the intended receiver. Three plays later, Ty Carroll took an O’Neil shovel pass and broke loose on a 60-yard TD for the final score.

“I’m incredibly proud of you guys for the way you hung together,” Peebles told his players on the field. “I’m almost speechless about how that game went.”

The coach chuckled after the chat about being somewhat speechless.

“I told the kids I was speechless because I didn’t know what to say,” Peebles said. “We played bad football, like embarrassingly bad football for two quarters. It’s 29-13 and I’m like, ‘Man, it can’t get any worse than this, the way we’ve played.’”

He couldn’t remember a time when his squad had dropped more passes, committed so many penalties and surrendered chunks of yards on third downs. After taking an early 13-7 lead in the first quarter, Cathedral couldn’t seem to do anything right in the middle quarters.

An Irish defense that cracked at times finished the victory with a seventh sack on the final play.

“This game could have gone a lot of different ways in the wrong way for us,” Peebles said.