Terry McLaurin runs for 312 yards as Cathedral smashes Decatur Central
By ROSS WEBER
ISL Correspondent
On a cold October night seemingly perfect for high school football, the largest student section at Decatur Central rained down chants of “Mr. Football! Mr. Football!” early in the first half of the Sectional game between the Decatur Central Hawks and the Fighting Irish of Cathedral.
The surprising thing was, the largest student section on Friday night was not for the home team, nor were the chants for a home team player.
Irish fans and parents packed almost standing room only into the small visitors section to watch Cathedral play its first ever 5A football tournament game, and they got one heck of a show from one heck of a talent.
Who else could draw the chants of “Mr. Football!” but Terry McLaurin?
The Ohio State commitment who has normally played wide receiver started in the backfield and made the most of his opportunity. On his first eight carries, five went for 20 yards or more and he had touchdowns of 26, 52 and 51 yards. By then, McLaurin had scored 18 points in 16 minutes.
McLaurin finished his monster night with 312 yards and four touchdowns on just 18 carries to lead the Irish to a 55-26 victory.
“The offensive line is going a great job up front, they’re really getting a lot of good pushes,” McLaurin said, “I think they have a really good swagger going about themselves.”
Here is one of McLaurin’s runs, courtesy of Jason Haddix:
Cathedral finished with 506 yards and eight touchdowns rushing. The Irish, known for their passing attack with Collin Barthel, only passed five times in this game, mostly because they didn’t need to.
But it was not all about the offense for Cathedral, or even McLaurin, on this night. The Irish shut out Decatur in the second half, led by senior linebacker Kyle Loechel who had 12 tackles and recorded a sack. They also held quarterback Tommy Stevens, who has gotten scholarship offers from Cincinnati and Iowa, to only 14 completions on 41 attempts.
McLaurin got in on the action on defense as well, breaking up two passes and helping the stout Irish defense close out the program’s 20th straight tournament win.
“I like to think of myself as an athlete and try to make plays wherever I can to help this team,” McLaurin said, “so if they need me at running back, defense, wide receiver, whatever it is, I’m going to do what I can to help the team out.”
Next up, the Irish will take on 4-5 Zionsville in the Sectional semi-final matchup.
“We knew we had the guys to get the job done,” McLaurin said. “Just getting the momentum going into Zionsville, which is going to be another tough test, and getting that first win in 5A is a really big boost for us.”
