Fourth-rated Cathedral opened play in the 51st annual Indiana high school football state tournament Friday night with a 42-2 second-round victory over Indianapolis North Central. The win sets up a championship matchup in Class 6A Sectional 6 next Friday at Lawrence North. The Wildcats eliminated Lawrence Central, 38-16, Friday in another semifinal game. On their second possession, the Fighting Irish drove 28 yards in seven plays, scoring on Jalen Bonds’ 6-yard run. Four minutes later, Jackson Lockhart returned a punt 74 yards for his second special teams’ touchdown of the season. Danny O’Neil then tossed scoring passes of one yard to Devaughn Slaughter, 42 yards to Albren Johnson and one yard to Zach Meeks. The last one came with nine seconds remaining in the first half to make the score 35-0, initiating a running clock for the second half under the IHSAA’s Mercy Rule. Colin Ayers ran 12 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the third quarter to complete the Irish scoring. A bad center snap over the quarterback’s head gave North Central a safety for two points on the final play of the game. O’Neil completed 12 of 18 passes for 76 yards. In doing so, he became the first player in school history to throw for more than 7,500 career yards and complete more than 600 career passes. The Fighting Irish defense held the Panthers to just 66 yards of total offense and one successful third-down conversion in 10 attempts. Cathedral and Lawrence North advance with identical 7-3 records. The Irish eliminated the Wildcats from the tournament, 44-35, in 2022. Cathedral is playing for its fourth sectional championship in four seasons competing in Class 6A and the school’s 27th sectional title overall.