FB 4A REG. 7: #3 Cathedral defeats #5 Mt. Vernon (Fortville), 41-7

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Mt. Vernon's dream season came to an end Friday night, as the Cathedral Irish scored 34 unanswered points to beat the Marauders 41-7 in the IHSAA Class 4A football regional at Arsenal Tech High School in Indianapolis. 

Cathedral quarterback Connor Rice was nearly perfect, throwing for 161 yards on 9-of-11 passing and running for 77 yards. Running back Gino Gillum had 149 yards and two scores, but the big gamebreaker was wideout Terry McLaurin, who had TD catches for 38 and 28 yards in the first half, then broke the game open with an 89-yard punt return in the third quarter. 

The Marauders had a strong start -- Tyler Dicks ran the opening kickoff back 37 yards to the MV 41, then the Marauders drove to the Cathedral 32. But the drive stalled on downs and the Irish answered with a long 12-play, 68-yard drive that ended in Gillum's 5-yard TD run with 3:57 left in the first quarter. 

That set the stage for the game -- four times, MV drove into Irish territory and turned the ball over on downs. Both MV punts came from the midfield area, too. Meanwhile, the Irish finished their drives well -- they never punted and had only one turnover. Each other possession ended in a score or the half expiring. 

Dicks gave MV its first score with an electrifying 41-yard run on a sweep where he got to the corner and outran the Irish defenders to the end zone, tying the game at 7-7 with 2:38 left in the opening quarter, but it would be the biggest play of the Marauders' night. 

Cathedral answered with a perfect pass from Rice to McLaurin from 38 yards out just 91 seconds later, and the Irish wouldn't look back. McLaurin caught the ball at the 15, spun toward the pylon, picked up a block and scored. 

After an exchange of fumbles, Rice hit McLaurin from 28 yards out on 2nd-and-17, hitting him in stride with a perfect pass over the middle to make it a 21-7 lead with 2:56 left. 

Cathedral scored on its first three drives of the second half, going on a 10-play, 80-yard march on the period's first drive that ended in the second of Gillum's two scores on the day to make it 28-7. Then, after forcing a Marauder punt, McLaurin fielded a punt at his own 11, broke several tackles and outraced everyone to the end zone. It was his second punt return for a TD in as many weeks. Rice added a fourth-quarter TD on a drive where Gillum carried 57 of the 82 yards to make it a 41-7 contest. 

Dicks led MV with 148 yards on 27 carries, accounting for most of MV's 215 yards of offense. Anthony Burnett was held to 25 yards rushing and Andy Spears 19.

MV finishes the year with an 11-2 record and the HHC championship. MV won its fourth sectional title and first since 2006. Cathedral is now 8-5 on the season and will play either Columbus East or Evansville Reitz next week.

Boxscore
Mt. Vernon (11-2) 7-0-0-0 -- 7
Cathedral (8-5) 14-7-14-6 -- 41
Scoring
C-Gillum 5 run (Gerbers kick), 3:57 1Q (12-68-4:42)
MV-Dicks 41 run (Justus kick), 2:38 1Q (4-64-1:15)
C-McLaurin 38 pass from Rice (Gerbers kick), 1:07 1Q (5-80-1:31)
C-McLaurin 28 pass from Rice (Gerbers kick), 2:56 2Q (7-46-3:17)
C-Gillum 1 run (Gerbers kick), 7:19 3Q (10-80-4:41)
C-McLaurin 89 punt return (Gerbers kick), 4:21 3Q
C-Rice 1 run (kick failed), 8:01 4Q (8-82-3:53)
Team stats
First downs: MV-12, C-24
Rushes-yds: MV 49-192, C 44-272
Passing C-A-I-Yds: MV 2-6-0-23, C 9-11-0-161
Total offense: MV 55-215, C 55-418
Fumbles-lost: MV 1-1, C 1-1
Penalties-yds: MV 2-20, C 3-41
Time of possession: MV 25:12, C 22:48
Third downs: MV 5-14, C 4-7
Fourth downs: MV 1-5, C 2-2
Individual stats
Mt. Vernon rushing: Dicks 27-148, Burnett 16-25, Spears 6-19
Mt. Vernon passing: Miller 2-5-0-23, Burnett 0-1-0-0
Mt. Vernon receiving: Werner 1-26, Burnett 1-(-3)
Cathedral rushing: Gillum 23-149, Rice 14-77, McLaurin 3-34, Gomez 3-10
Cathedral passing: Rice 9-11-0-161
Cathedral receiving: McLaurin 3-72, Levingston 3-64, Wood 1-11, Lenahan 1-9, Gillum 1-5