Lafayette Central Catholic rips Indy Scecina

INDIANAPOLIS | Indianapolis Scecina had no way of stopping Purdue recruit Danny Anthrop.

Anthrop ran for 255 yards and three touchdowns on just 23 carries and the Lafayette Central Catholic Knights routed Scecina, 38-7 Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium for Indiana's Class A football crown.

"When our offensive line does its job and gives Danny lanes, you see what he can do," Central Catholic coach Kevin O'Shea said of the future Boilermaker. "Thank goodness he's in our backyard and we're going to get a chance to see him. It's going to be great."

Anthrop was just 46 yards short of tying the Class A record of 301 rushing yards in a state championship game.

Clearly Anthrop was on the radar of Scecina coach Ott Hurrle. He finished with 51 touchdowns this season - 32 rushing, 13 receiving and six returning touchdowns.

"Well, our game plan wasn't very good," Hurrle said. "That's why I was saying he was anthrax all week long. We thought we had a good game plan of keeping him in, but man, his feet never stop."

With the championship win Saturday, Central Catholic (15-0) became the first team to go undefeated for three straight consecutive seasons since the state tournament began in 1973. The Knights have the second longest winning streak in state history with 45 straight wins.

"I think the key to this team is how well we play together," Anthrop said. "Our chemistry is great. I'm going to miss it."

The Knights didn't waste any time jumping on the Crusaders. Central Catholic forced Scecina to punt on the opening drive, and then three plays into the Knights' first possession, Anthrop ran 68-yards to take an early 7-0 lead.

The Crusaders were forced to punt again on their next possession, a punt that landed on the Central Catholic 1-yard line. A penalty forced the Knights back a half-yard, then Central Catholic started a 99-yard scoring drive, capped by 1-yard scoring run by Anthrop, early in the second quarter.

The Knights scored twice more before the end of the half. Timmy Mills scored on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Austin Munn and later Brad Schrader ran five yards for a touchdown to give the Knights a 28-0 lead at halftime.

Central Catholic ran for 305 yards and had 398 yards total. Munn was 5-of-9 with an interception.

Scecina had only 179 yards total offense. Robert Rennick completed 5 of 12 passes for 86 yards with an interception and Matt Deering had 77 yards on three receptions.

"Our defense is what we've hung our hat on the past three years," O'Shea said. "There's been very few teams score more than once on us. When we get a defense that plays the way they play and we get an opportunity to have short fields, it makes for a long night for our opponent sometimes."

Scecina's single touchdown came with 20 seconds left in the game on a 33-yard touchdown pass from Rennick to Deering.

Central Catholic has won three straight championship titles with a combined score of 121-13. In 2009 the Knights beat Fountain Central, 52-0 and then last season beat Fountain Central 31-6.