News

Indianapolis Cathedral ratcheted up the defensive pressure on Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger, Class 4A's highest-scoring team, and captured a 31-20 victory and its eighth state championship.

The Irish, ranked No. 6 by the Associated Press and No. 7 in the Coaches' poll, became the fifth school with eight or more state titles. Finishing 12-3, Cathedral won its third 4A title in five years.

Coach Rick Streiff's Irish defense put the clamps on Bishop Dwenger, which came in averaging 47 points a game, when it counted most. On three occasions when Bishop Dwenger advanced inside Cathedral's 20-yard line, the Irish defense tightened, recovering a fumble once and holding the Saints to field goals twice.

Quarterback Connor Barthel hit 23 of 34 passes for 335 yards and two touchdowns for Cathedral, which outscored its six tournament opponents 322-99. John Rice caught eight passes for 121 yards and a score, and Reece Horn had six receptions for 122 yards and a TD. Gino Gillum led Irish rushers with 85 yards and a TD on 19 carries.

Coach Chris Svarczkopf's Bishop Dwenger team, playing in the final game for the second time in three seasons, fell short in its bid for a fourth state title. The second-ranked Saints finished 13-1.

Reymound Wright led the Saints' offense with 143 yards and a toucndown on 14 rushing attempts. Jalen West totaled 108 rushing yards, 80 coming on a touchdown run in the third quarter.

Cathedral’s Connor Barthel Named Mental Attitude Award Winner
Indianapolis Cathedral’s Connor Barthel was selected by members of the IHSAA Executive Committee as this year’s winner of the Phil N. Eskew Mental Attitude Award in Class 4A Football.

The award, named in honor of the IHSAA’s third commissioner who served from 1962-76, is presented annually to a senior in each classification who best demonstrates excellence in mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability.

Barthel is in his first season as the starting quarterback and has set a single season school record for passing yards. He was elected as a co-captain by his teammates. Besides football, Barthel will play his fourth year of basketball this winter and also has played two seasons of baseball and ran a year of track.

He’s involved in the Latin Club at his school, assists in the Technology Department and was chosen as one of 20 seniors to mentor freshmen students as a peer counselor.

Academically, he carries a 3.6 GPA and has been on the honor roll every semester. He is currently undecided on his college choice but is interested in studying sports administration.

He is the son of Tim and Julie Barthel of Indianapolis.

Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance, the IHSAA’s corporate partner, presented a scholarship check for $1,000.00 to Indianapolis Cathedral High School in the name of Barthel. Since 1989, more than $707,000 in college scholarships have been presented by Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance to deserving high school students in Indiana.

Comments from Indianapolis Cathedral Coach Rick Streiff
“Dwenger is a great, great football team and we knew they weren’t going to go away.  It was a tough, tough battle for our kids. Hats off to them (Dwenger). They have some great players.”

(Turning point of the game)
“When they laid the ball on the carpet in the third quarter for their second turnover, that was a big play for us.  If you’d have told me before the game they’d only score 20 points, I would have felt pretty good about our chances.  What was big was our kids running down Wright a couple times.  Doing that in the first half kept it close.  It could have gotten out of hand.”

(On Connor Barthel)
“He has a great cast of players around him that allow him to do what he does well.  Coming off the field after the semi-state last year, we knew we had something special.  He was patient, and he’s just a great kid.”

(On his 6th state championship)
“The first one you win for your own coaching ego and the rest of them are really for the kids.  These guys worked their butts off for this.  We started the year 0-3 and got it put to us.  For these kids to keep battling nevertheless, that’s a very, very special bunch of guys.  I think it helped us having those tough games early.  We really had to fight hard and it paid off today.”

Comments from Cathedral QB Connor Barthel
(On winning Mental Attitude Award)
“It doesn’t get any better than this.  To experience all this with my dad (Tim) as a coach and my brother (Colin) on the freshman team, I feel like I’m on top of the world right now.”

Comments from Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger Coach Chris Svarczkopf
“We had chances in the game, but we had some miscues.  I feel bad about that because we were very close.  That’s a great Cathedral football team.  You can’t make mistakes, and they took advantage of our mistakes.  The ball takes funny bounces sometimes.  But our guys fought to the end.  It wasn’t because of a lack of effort.”

“We knew they were great coming out, and they had a really good game plan.  They took away things we hang our hat on.  The pitch for us early on wasn’t there, so we went with the give.  They did a good job of mixing up their things defensively to take away certain things at different times.  We always seemed to be a little behind.  But at the end we still had our chances.”

“Remound (Wright) is a tremendous player.  If he is not the best player in the state, I’d like to see a better one.  All of our seniors have followed his lead.”

“We played hard the whole game. Even with six minutes to go when we recovered the onside kick, we had our chances.”