The Greencastle High School football team had given up just 28 points all season heading into Friday's Class 3A Sectional 21 championship game. But it took third-ranked Bishop Chatard just over 19 minutes to surpass that total.
The Trojans dominated the game from the start, jumping out to a 15-point lead on the No. 4 Tiger Cubs less than 10 minutes into the game and rolling to a 50-7 win at Lawrence North.
Chatard (10-2), which will host Greensburg (10-2) on Friday, rolled up 230 yards of offense in the opening half while limiting previously undefeated Greencastle to 37. The Trojans didn't give up any points until a 69-yard Greencastle scoring run with less than a minute remaining in the game.
"I thought we came out pretty focused and played with pretty good effort," Chatard coach Vince Lorenzano said. "(The Tiger Cubs) are better this year. The score doesn't show it, but they are. But our kids play hard. They'll always play hard."
Chatard took the opening kickoff and methodically moved 68 yards in eight plays, capping the drive with a 20-yard run by Pete Hartley. Quarterback Sam Neighbours completed both of his passes on the drive, good for 23 yards, and said it was important for the Trojans to come out strong.
"We needed to come out and make a statement," said Neighbours, who completed nine of 13 passes for 97 yards and two touchdowns. "We knew they had a good defense, but we wanted to come out and show what our offense can do."
The Trojans had to punt on their next possession but pinned the Tiger Cubs at their own 2-yard line. On the next play, Chatard's Michael Weimer shot through the line and tackled quarterback Nick Gilliam in the end zone to push the lead to 9-0.
Two drives later, Neighbours completed all three of his passes, including an 11-yarder to Henry Hill that made it 15-0 in favor of the Trojans. Hartley made it 22-0 when he returned a punt 82 yards with 8:45 to go in the half, and a Hill interception gave the Trojans the ball at the Greencastle 20 just 14 seconds later. Four Alex Kimack carries gave Chatard a 29-0 lead.
Any hopes Greencastle had for a comeback disappeared 1:38 into the third quarter, when Sean Parsons stepped in front of a Gilliam pass and returned it 27 yards for a score, pushing the lead to 36-0. Chatard limited Greencastle to 110 totals yards, including just 1 yard on 5-of-20 passing.
