After a near-perfect first half, Cathedral Catholic High School had trouble getting out of its own way in the final 24 minutes.
The Dons, however, had built a 27-point lead and survived to beat Phoenix Mountain Pointe 27-13 in the 15th annual Honor Bowl.
“Really good first half,” said Cathedral Catholic coach Sean Doyle of a 27-0 lead at the break. “Not so good in the second half, and I really won’t know why until we look at the film.
“We need to clean up some things. We had a bad snap, fumble a couple of balls. But we showed some discipline and drew them offside three or four times with hard counts.
“Hand it to Mountain Pride, the didn’t drive five hours to get shutout. They have a good team. That’s why they came here. They showed a lot of character.”
Mountain Pointe (1-1) scored three times in the second half, but two were field goals as the defense tightened for No. 3 Cathedral Catholic (3-0).
Luke Westfall had a fourth-quarter sack that forced Mountain Pointe to settle for a field goal instead of driving for a touchdown.
And Jonothan Solomon had three clock-killing runs at the end of the game.
“I’ve been playing since I was a sophomore and we lost the last two Honor Bowls, so this win means a lot,” Solomon said. “You play it for the veterans, for all our military brothers and sisters, so it was big.”
Solomon finished with 17 carries for 75 yards and a touchdown. Jake Funderburg ran 13 times for 52 yards and a pair of TDs.
Quarterback Brady Palmer threw just 11 passes, six coming in the first half. But he rushed six times in the first half, once for eight yards and another for 21. He finished with 35 yards rushing and 48 passing.
Cathedral Catholic (3-0) had drives of 80 yards, 59 yards and 66 yards in the first half.
A series of plays near the end of the first half epitomized Mountain Pointe’s frustration.
Trailing 20-0, the Pride appeared to get back in the game, but a long halfback pass was dropped by a wide-open receiver.
The Dons forced a punt, but fumbled the ball back to Mountain Pointe only to have Bronx Letuligasenoa scoop up a fumble and rumble 53 yards to the Pride 24.
A penalty moved the ball to the 12 and a play later Palmer flipped a 9-yard scoring pass to Hunter Harrington.
Cathedral Catholic 27, Phoenix Mountain Pointe 13
Mountain Pointe 0 0 3 10 — 13
Cathedral Catholic 7 20 0 0 — 27
CC — Funderburg 4 run (Eastlack kick)
CC — Solomon 7 run (Eastlack kick)
CC — Funderburg 2 run (run failed)
CC — Harrington 9 pass from Palmer (Eastlack kick)
MP — FG Orduno 35
MP — Shumate 5 pass from Knorr (Orduno kick)
MP — FG Orduno 37
