Top-ranked Indianapolis Cathedral defeated Zionsville, 46-28, at Lucas Oil Stadium Saturday night to win the Class 5-A high school football state championship. It’s the school’s 13th title in a record-tying 16 final appearances, and the third in the six years the Irish have competed in Class 5-A with the others coming in 2013 and 2014.
Cathedral received the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards in ten plays, scoring on quarterback Nathan McCahill’s 1-yard run. His shovel pass to Cam Jordan on the successful two-point conversion attempt gave the Irish an early 8-0 lead.
In the second quarter, McCahill completed touchdown passes to Parker Spellacy and Jordan for 4 and 5 yards respectively, increasing Cathedral’s lead to 22-0. Zionsville quarterback Josh Stone threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Myles Cox in the closing seconds of the first half to put the Eagles on the scoreboard.
The offenses traded touchdowns twice in the third quarter. On the first possession of the second half, Stone connected with Luke Baumgartner for a 20-yard scoring pass. McCahill countered with a 9-yard TD pass to Jordan. Then Stone found Baumgartner in the end zone from 12-yards away. McCahill answered with a 75-yard touchdown pass to David Perry, making the score 36-21.
In the fourth quarter, Jordan scored his third touchdown on a 1-yard McCahill shovel pass, while Baumgartner caught his third scoring pass, a 6-yard reception, from Stone. Cathedral’s Ben Gomez kicked a 35-yard field goal with 2:44 remaining to provide the final margin.
McCahill completed 27 of 35 passes to eight different receivers for 322 yards and five touchdowns. Jordan caught 12 passes for 91 yards. Jake Langdon rushed 10 times for 137 yards. Bryce Llewellyn led the Irish defense with 11 tackles and a fumble recovery, while Hudson Miller recorded 9 tackles, including 3.5 for a loss. Stone completed 19 of 31 pass attempts for 304 yards and four touchdowns, while Baumgartner caught nine passes for 153 yards.
McCahill and Jordan each set or tied multiple Class 5A championship game records. McCahill broke the record for most passes completed, previously 25, set by Warren Central’s Jeff George in 1985. He tied Bloomington South’s Rex Grossman (1998) and Carmel’s Adam Schaffer (2006) for most touchdown passes in a 5A title game.
Jordan broke the 5A finals record for most receptions, previously 11, set by Carmel’s Adam Kehoe in 2011. Jordan and Baumgartner both tied Carmel’s Nick Logan (2009) and New Palestine’s Duke Blackwell (2015) for most TD receptions in a 5A championship game.
McCahill finishes the season with a school-record 41 passing touchdowns, 3,190 passing yards, 822 rushing yards, and 12 TD runs. His 4,012 total yards is the most in the state of Indiana this season according to MaxPreps.
Jordan concludes his 21-game high school career with 108 receptions for 1,632 yards and a school-record 35 touchdowns. In 2020, Jordan caught 70 passes for 888 yards and a school-record 21 touchdowns.
Langdon finishes the season with 1,445 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns. He closes his 32-game high school career with 2,192 yards on the ground, becoming one of only ten players to rush for more than 2,000 yards in school history.
Cathedral has now won its last 12 state championship appearances. The Fighting Irish finish the year with a 13-1 record, which is the most wins in a season for the Irish since 2006.