The Fighting Irish from Indianapolis Cathedral will be in town Saturday for a rare late-season non-conference game for Brother Rice.  The game will be at Southfield-Lathrup High School at 1:3o pm Saturday.  If you would like to see a top team from another state, come out to Lathrup and cheer on your home team Warriors.

Brother Rice has played a number of top programs from other states over the years, but the games are usually early in the season and often away.  Not only is this week’s game late in the year, but there are serious playoff implications for Brother Rice.  At least Rice won’t have to travel this week.  It’s unusual that a top Midwest program is  traveling to Michigan, but a two-year home-and-home deal with Brother Rice begins in Michigan this year.

Cathedral is the winningest program in Indiana history (635-255-19).  They are currently ranked number one in Indiana in all classes.  They are the defending 4A (second largest) State Champion.  Cathedral has defeated both the number two (Carmel) and number 3 (Warren Central) teams this year.  They are 7-1 on the season, with their only loss coming at the hands of Cincinnati St. Xavier, currently the #2 team in the USA (Massey) and #10 (USA Today).  The score in the St. X game was 19-10.  Cathedral is ranked #8 in the Midwest by PrepNation.  Detroit Catholic Central (24-7 winner vs. Brother Rice in Week 4) is ranked #10.   Cathedral is not ranked in the USA Today Regional Rankings.  Michigan’s Rockford is #10 in USA Today’s Midwest rankings.

The leading player for Cathedral is its quarterback, Kofi Hughes (6′2″ 200 lbs.).  Hughes is a dual-threat, Rivals 3-star QB who has committed to Indiana University.  Hughes is the team’s leading rusher (923 yards) and has 12 TDs (#1 on the team).  He is just over 50% on completion percentage with 955 yards and 7 TDs, and 1 INT.   While Hughes doesn’t pass a lot, he can be very dangerous on both short and down-field routes.  He is also a big threat on both the quarterback scramble and planned QB keeper.

The other threat out of the backfield is Nick Najem (5′10″ 190 lbs.).  Namem is a Division One candidate who is being recruited by Big Ten schools, among them Purdue.  He has gained 617 yards on 120 attempts and has 11 rushing touchdowns.

Safety Jake Zupancic (5′11″ 197 lbs.) has an offer from Stanford and is being recruited by a number of other major programs.  Zupancic leads the team in tackles with 61 and is number two in sacks (6).  The sack leader is Ben Hizer (9).

The leading receiver is senior, Stevie Wilson (5′9″, 155 lbs.) with 354 yards on the season.

The lineman look more like a Big Ten line than high school.  They are anchored by 6′7″ 300 lb. senior, Matt Widemon and 6′4″ 275 lb. junior, Ted Karras.  (I wonder if he’s related to Alex?)  The other three interior linemen weigh in at 275, 235 and 225.  On defense (there are no two-way players), senior Camaron Beard, 6′6″ 250 lbs. and senior Jacob Avellana, 5′9″ 250 lbs. lead the three man front.  The Cathedral defense features a 3-5-3 formation.

This will be a tough game for Rice, but certainly one that is winnable.  Cathedral will come to town with a huge roster.  It’s hard to tell just how many, since their roster is a combined Varsity/JV roster, but it will probably be in the 80’s.  Their nickname is not the only similarity with the University of Notre Dame.  Their uniforms are identical as well.  Whether the Cathedral Fighting Irish play as well as they look remains to be seen.  Rice needs to play its best game of the season in order to take the W.  If they can find the running game, missing since Week 2 and combine that with what has been an excellent passing attack (Popp is 87 for 178 for 1,138 yards and 10 TDs), Rice can pull off the mini-upset.  Rice cannot assume that they will win in Week 9 against either Detroit Southeastern or Detroit Cody and get in the playoffs.  They should go all out for the win this week and use Week 9 as a playoff tune-up.