<p>NARRATOR: <em>Two different classes, two dominant teams.</em></p><p><em>One of them will head into the postseason with a blemish on its record. Neither is expected to get another one.</em></p><p><em>Though the start of sectional play is still a week away, Indiana high school football gets its de facto Super Bowl tonight when Class 6A No. 1 Center Grove hosts 5A No. 1 Cathedral…</em></p><p>The trailer pretty much writes itself.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]<p>The hype around Cathedral-Center Grove has been building for weeks now, and understandably so. The Trojans and Fighting Irish are the unquestioned cream of their respective classes, both 8-0 and both nationally ranked (14th and 25th, respectively) by USA Today. They are the two best teams in the state by a wide margin.</p><p>In terms of such measures, this <em>might</em> be the biggest regular-season high school game ever played in Indiana.</p><p>But this game is also, in some ways, an inconvenient outlier for Center Grove — a pit stop in between one goal already achieved (a conference championship) and another still ahead (a Class 6A state title).</p><p>Center Grove coach Eric Moore says that while this Cathedral team is probably the best one he’s gone up against since this series began in 2014, and he acknowledges that the buzz is "cool" and "something to write about," it’s still hard to consider the Fighting Irish a major rival because they haven’t played enough times.</p><p>For the Trojans, this will never be as big a game as the annual meetings with MIC rivals Warren Central, Carmel or Ben Davis — especially since they almost always see one or more of those teams again come tournament time.</p><p>Moore says he even considered the possibility of holding his key players out of tonight’s contest.</p><p>"It being the last game of the regular season, that makes it — maybe we shouldn’t play our kids," he said. "Maybe we’ve proven what we need to prove. That’s crossed my mind as well. You hate losing somebody in a game that doesn’t — they’re a 5A, they’re going to play in the 5A tournament, we’re going to play in the 6A tournament. It’s fun for everybody else to say, ‘Oh, two undefeated teams playing,’ but if both of us lose kids, we’re going to hate ourselves for it."</p><p>Most likely, though, that competitive spirit will prevail and the stars will all come out to shine tonight. Both Center Grove and Cathedral are heavily favored to win state championships, but this game is supposed to settle the debate of which team is <em>the</em> best.</p><p>Each has been stating an impressive case thus far.</p><p>The Fighting Irish have beaten their five in-state opponents by an average of 31.6 points and also defeated three of Cincinnati’s perennial powerhouses in St. Xavier, LaSalle and Elder. The Trojans, meanwhile, carved their way through one of the toughest conferences in America, with last week’s 28-13 victory at Lawrence North the closest thing they’ve seen to a challenge.</p><p>They’re 1-2 in the Sagarin ratings, with Center Grove at 114.32 and Cathedral just behind at 111.58. Carmel, third in the state at 99.49, lost to both in consecutive weeks, falling to the Irish at home by a 44-28 margin and then suffering a 47-0 defeat at Center Grove in which the Greyhounds never even reached midfield.</p><p>That’s been par for the course against the Trojans’ defense, which pitched three other shutouts against MIC opponents (Warren Central, North Central and Lawrence Central). The starting unit has yielded just four scores all season long.</p><p>It’ll be tested, though, by a balanced Cathedral offense led by quarterback Nathan McCahill (1,923 yards passing and 478 rushing), running back Jake Langdon (864 yards) and a deep receiving corps led by Camden Jordan (45 receptions, 12 TDs).</p><p>The Trojans also remember taking a 14-9 loss to the Fighting Irish last season. No matter how dominant they’ve been this year, that bad taste is still there.</p><p>"There’s always an edge after losing a game, I’ll say that," senior linebacker Trey Clark said.</p><p>Center Grove also figures to get a boost from what will be the largest crowd it will play in front of during the regular season. Attendance at Ray Skillman Stadium, which was capped at 25 percent of capacity for the Trojans’ first five home games, has been raised to 50 percent for this one (the originally announced allowance of 75 percent has been scaled back a bit due to the sharp statewide rise in COVID-19 cases the past two weeks).</p><p>That means 1,800 fans on the home side tonight instead of 900. Every additional voice, Clark says, makes a difference.</p><p>"Our crowd for sure helps," he said. "Even with us barely having what we had, it helps a lot."</p><p>The enthusiasm is there on both sides. Cathedral’s allotment of 750 tickets sold out within hours on Monday morning.</p><p>Center Grove athletic director Jon Zwitt says that it’s too bad this game is being played under 2020 circumstances, because a showdown of this significance could have potentially drawn a standing-room-only crowd of as many as 10,000 fans in a normal year.</p><p>Moore still wishes that the restrictions could be lifted entirely, and he’s certainly not the only one. But limited attendance certainly beats the alternative in a season that has already seen 135 of Indiana’s 320 high school teams have to sit out at least one Friday night.</p><p>"Right now, we’re just looking at it as another game that we’re lucky to get to play," Clark said. "We’re just taking it day by day, just getting better and watching film, studying what they’re doing, and then going out there and we’re going to play."</p><p>Given how the season has gone elsewhere, Zwitt is hesitant to consider any game a given until the teams are actually on the field, and this one is no exception.</p><p>"It could still be a kick in the teeth if all of a sudden I called you Friday morning and said, ‘Hey, we just had one of our kids test positive and it’s going to wipe out our whole offensive line. We’re going to go ahead and cancel this game tonight,’" he said. "Or Cathedral could give me that same call Friday. So it’s one of those things — you’re just hanging on every day, wondering, ‘Is this really going to happen?’ So you don’t get too hyped up about it, because in this particular year, it can change in a heartbeat.</p><p>"When we kick off at 7 o’clock, I’ll be much more relieved."</p><p>Once that ball is in play, fans at Center Grove and around the state can actually enjoy the game that they’ve been looking forward to and hyping up for weeks.</p><p>In the meantime, Moore will continue playing the role of the wet blanket.</p><p>"I hope we can compete," he said, channeling his inner Lou Holtz. "They’re really good."</p><p>So are the Trojans — hence the excitement.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="Tonight’s games" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p>Greenwood at Whiteland, 7 p.m.</p><p>Cathedral at Center Grove, 7 p.m.</p><p>Indian Creek at Northview, 7 p.m.</p><p>Indianapolis Crimson Knights at Edinburgh, 7 p.m.</p><p>Roncalli at East Central, 7:30 p.m.</p><p><em>Follow @rolearyDJ on Twitter for the latest updates on all of the local games throughout the evening.</em></p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
