PLAINFIELD, Ind. — Cathedral High School quarterback Kofi Hughes was excited for Friday night’s sectional final.

Maybe a little too excited, Hughes acknowledged.

“We came out a little too anxious,” Hughes said. “We weren’t as focused as we needed to be. That was (my fault). That was me letting the ball go (on a fumble).”

After Plainfield capitalized on a short field to score first, Hughes made amends. The Class 4A No. 1 Irish scored 34 consecutive points en route to a 48-21 rout of the host Quakers in the 4A Sectional 14 final. Cathedral (11-1) will host New Palestine (10-2) in the regional at a field yet to be determined.

“Once we fixed my mistakes, we really took off,” Hughes said.

Hughes, a senior who has committed to play football at Indiana University, rushed for 166 yards on 18 carries with touchdown runs of 29 and 8 yards. He also connected on 9-of-14 passes for 134 yards with scoring passes of 21 yards to Michael Bender and 5 yards to Tom Bemenderfer.

“Kofi has really gotten better (passing),” Irish coach Rick Streiff said. “Last year we knew he was a good runner and this year he has really developed a fine touch in the passing game.”

Hughes said the Irish have been concentrating on improving their passing.

“People know that I can run, but the way the receivers have matured this year, they’re letting people know I can pass as well,” Hughes said. “I have to give credit to (the receivers).”

Hughes said junior Reece Horn has developed into a primary receiver. Horn caught five passes for 82 yards.

“Reece loosened them up early,” Streiff said. “We hit some passes on them and it really allowed us to open things up.”

Plainfield (8-4) led 7-6 after one quarter after Cathedral missed the conversion kick on its first touchdown. But the Irish didn’t panic.

“We’ve kind of handled adversity a lot of different times this year,” Streiff said. “It is one of the things I like about our guys. That isn’t one of the ways we want to start a football game. That’s two weeks in a row we’ve gotten down early and had to make some plays.”

Irish senior running back Nick Najem added 95 yards on 12 carries for the Irish, including touchdown runs of 59 and 4 yards. The Quakers did a good job holding Najem to just 15 yards in the first half, Streiff said.

Senior Chandler James had touchdown runs of 64 and 5 yards for the Quakers.

[chart]
||||||||
|Cathedral|6|20|15|7|—|48|
|Plainfield|7|0|7|7|—|21|
[end chart]

P — Elliott Hughes 4 run (Andrew Verhonik kick)

C — Michael Bender 21 pass from Kofi Hughes (kick failed)

C — Hughes 29 run (run failed)

C — Tom Bemenderfer 5 pass from Hughes (Nick Najem run)

C — Stevie Wilson 8 run (kick blocked)

C — Najem 59 run (Horn pass from Wes Vasillo)

P — Chandler James 64 run (Verhonik kick)

C — Hughes 8 run (Scott Miller kick)

P — James 5 run (Verhonik kick)

C — Najem 4 run (Miller kick)

[chart]
||Cath|Plain|
|First Downs|21|5|
|Rushes-Yards|39-299|35-140|
|Passing Yards|134|6|
|Comp-Att-Int|9-14-0|3-5-0|
|Fumbles-Lost|2-2|1-0|
|Penalties-Yards|7-53|5-40|
|Punts-Avg.|2-42.0|7-33.1|
[end chart]

Rushing - Cathedral: K. Hughes 18-166, Najem 12-95, Wilson 3-16, Lou Stanley 3-15. Plainfield: E. Hughes 17-58, James 10-87, Eric Drake 1-3, Evan Wilson 1-0, Jay 6(-8).

Passing — Cathedral: Hughes 9-14-0 134. Plainfield: Jay 3-5-0 6.

Receiving - Cathedral: Reece Horn 5-82, Najem 2-26, Bender 1-21, Bemenderfer 1-5. Plainfield: Nick McClain 1-7, Drake 1-1, E. Hughes 1(-2).