By Mark Ambrogi
For the Daily Journal
INDIANAPOLIS
Senior Caden Gore continues to show how valuable he is for the Roncalli offense.
“Caden has been an underrated guy,” Royals coach John Rodenberg said. “I didn’t know what to expect from Caden. He comes on to the scene. He can run. He can catch. He can do some good things.”
Gore caught two touchdown passes and ran for a third TD Friday night in Class 4A No. 1 Roncalli’s 34-13 victory over host Franklin Central.
The 5-foot-11 Gore is listed as a wide receiver but primarily was playing running back. Gore gained 83 yards on 12 rushes and caught five passes for 75 yards.
Roncalli senior quarterback Aidan Leffler completed 14 of 20 passes for 203 yards.
“Aidan is Aidan,” Rodenberg said of the solid performance. “A four-year starter, he’d better do that stuff.”
After Franklin Central opened the game with a field goal on the opening possession, Roncalli scored 27 unanswered points to take a 27-3 lead at halftime.
The Flashes had a 10-0 edge in the third quarter as the Royals hit a lull.
“We’ve got to learn to put the pedal to the metal the entire game,” Rodenberg said. “I’m glad this game happened to us. Franklin Central had a lot of fight to them. They proved they could be on the field. We were running and we stalled offensively. I told the team there is going to be times when one side of the ball is going to run into a wall. We had a couple things happen to us. We didn’t get that fourth-and-one. Overall, I thought the offense was good, but it’s a good learning lesson. I think the film is going to be a good learning session. If we truly want to be great, we can’t get into that mediocre series on offense or defense.”
Gore scored on a 44-yard TD run to put the Royals up 7-3.
“Our O-line made the hole and I just kept running,” Gore said.
After a 23-yard field goal by Luke Russell pushed Roncalli’s lead to 10-3 with 5 seconds gone in the second quarter, Nolan Tunny’s 36-yard interception return gave the Royals a 17-3 lead with 8:43 left in the half.
“That was huge,” Rodenberg said.
Roncalli increased the lead to 24-7 on Gore’s 27-yard TD catch with 7:36 left in the second quarter, and Russell nailed a 22-yard field goal just before the first half ended.
The Royals’ final score came when Gore caught a 11-yard pass with 8:05 left to put the visitors up 34-13 with 8:05 left in the fourth quarter.
“Aidan put it in perfect position where the defense couldn’t get it and I stuck out the ball (over the goal line) and had to get the touchdown,” Gore said.
That gave the Royals the momentum again.
“We stick together and we finish, that’s what we do,” Gore said.
The Royals were helped by four interceptions.
“We’ve been playing good defense,” Rodenberg said. “We want to check the film and see where we made our mistakes.”
