“It was a great night,” Cahill said. “I got the ball to my receivers, and they made plays for me so I credit those yards to them and my offensive line for keeping me upright basically the whole game.”
Cahill ended the night with a career-high 474 yards passing and five touchdown passes with four different receivers scoring. Three of Cahill’s touchdown passes went for over 70 yards and his shortest one was a mere 40-yarder.
“He (Cahill) got rid of the ball quick and did not take many hits,” Allentown Central Catholic head coach Jacob Reichard said. “Being a coach’s son, he is a smart kid and he is the leader of the offense.”
The Vikings (6-5) eventually got rolling but was not before needing to turn away a pair of Olympians (4-7) drives in the first quarter that went deep into their own territory. Jim Thorpe took the opening kickoff just past midfield and a personal foul penalty on the Vikings had them start at the 31-yard line. Deon Johnson halted the first drive after deflecting and intercepting a pass at the line of scrimmage.
Jim Thorpe turned Allentown Central Catholic over on downs in their own territory at the 24-yard line and drove back into Vikings territory. However, an interception once again ended a drive as Trey Torres-Johnson made a nice snatch on the sideline at the Vikings own 22-yard line.
“Early on it felt like it was going to be a slugfest and not the score it ended up being,” Reichard said. “The defense kept it scoreless long enough to when the offense began making big plays, we got complete control of the game.”
The aerial raid from Cahill began right after the Vikings grabbed their second interception. He needed two plays for his first of three 70-yard touchdown passes when he found Luis Martinez for a 78-yard catch-and-run touchdown pass to make it 7-0 at the 4:01-mark of the first quarter.
The Vikings first play of the second quarter went for a touchdown when Cahill stepped up in the pocket and hit Greg Tillman for a 76-yard pass and extended the lead to 15-0 following a two-point conversion. The speed from Allentown Central Catholic burned the Olympians once again on the ensuing drive when Tahir Edmonson took a simple screen pass over the middle 77 yards to the house to put the Vikings up 21-0 with 8:11 left in the first half.
“We saw on film they play a lot of man and cover 3 defense,” Cahill said. “We knew we could take advantage of it and my receivers made the plays when they got the space to work.”
Jim Thorpe got on the board when quarterback Cole Lazorick scored on a 3-yard touchdown run after initially getting short field to make it a 21-7 game with 4:39 left in the first half.
The Vikings did not let the Olympians momentum last as they needed just 1:20 to respond when Cahill tossed his shortest touchdown pass of the game, a 40-yard completion to Harry Restino that made it 28-7. Bryson Baker capped the first half with a 31-yard field goal as time expired to leave the Vikings up 31-7.
The first play of the second half turned into another long touchdown completion as Martinez turned in a brilliant 69-yard touchdown reception behind spinning through five Jim Thorpe defenders to further extend the Vikings lead to 38-7. All three phases of the Vikings onslaught came to a height on the Olympians first drive of the second half when Di’Quiawn Leak blocked a punt and returned it 20 yards for a touchdown that made it a 45-7 game.
“Being so efficient and so quick on offense probably made our defensive guys are thinking ‘oh man we are back on defense again’ but that is a great problem to have,” Reichard said. “All three phases of our game were working tonight.”
Torres-Johnson scored the only offensive touchdown of the game that was not a touchdown pass from Cahill late in the third quarter on a 15-yard run.
Four Vikings receivers had at least 70 yards and Martinez led the way with four catches for 169 yards with two touchdowns.
Allentown Central Catholic now gets a familiar face in the second round of Districts next Thursday night as they face Bethlehem Catholic in a rematch of “The Holy War”. The Golden Hawks won a narrow 28-24 battle in the regular season meeting at J. Birney Crum back in late September.
“Everyone knows the Allentown Central-Bethlehem Catholic rivalry,” Reichard said. “They are going to be extra amped up and we are going to be extra amped up and both teams are going to come to play. I am looking forward to the chance to playing them again.”
| SCORE BY QUARTERS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| Jim Thorpe | 0 | 7 | 0 | 14 | 21 |
| Allentown Central Catholic | 7 | 24 | 21 | 0 | 52 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | ACC | Martinez, 78 pass from Cahill (Baker Kick) | 4:01 |
| 2 | ACC | Tillman, 76 pass from Cahill (Edmonson run) | 10:57 |
| 2 | ACC | Edmonson, 77 pass from Cahill (Kick Blocked) | 8:11 |
| 2 | JT | Lazorick, 3 run (Flyzik Kick) | 4:39 |
| 2 | ACC | Restino, 40 pass from Cahill (Baker Kick) | 3:19 |
| 2 | ACC | Baker, 31 FG | 0:00 |
| 3 | ACC | Martinez, 69 pass from Cahill (Baker Kick) | 9:40 |
| 3 | ACC | Leak, 20 blocked punt return (Baker Kick) | 8:28 |
| 3 | ACC | Torres-Johnson, 15 run (Baker Kick) | 1:35 |
| 4 | JT | Novack, 1 run (Flyzik Kick) | 9:22 |
| 4 | JT | Zurawa, 11 pass from Lazorick (Flyzik Kick) | 3:31 |
Team statistics
| Jim Thorpe | Allentown CC | |
| First downs | 12 | 12 |
| Rushes-yards | 24-127 | 16-17 |
| Passing yards | 126 | 474 |
| Total yards | 253 | 491 |
| Passes COMP-ATT-INT | 10-28-2 | 13-16-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 1-0 | 1-0 |
| Punts-average | 3-26.0 | 1-27.0 |
| Penalties-yards | 4-25 | 8-65 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Jim Thorpe: Novack 8-69, Lazorick 7-35, Levins 8-22, Broadbent 1-1
Allentown CC: Torres-Johnson 6-29, Hoffert 3-6, D. Johnson 2-(-1), Cahill 2-(-4), Katz 2-(-6), Morales 1-(-7)
PASSING
Jim Thorpe: Lazorick 10-28-2–126
Allentown CC: Cahill 13-16-0–474
RECEIVING
Jim Thorpe: Zurawa 4-85, Gothard 3-23, Levins 2-10, Novack 1-8
Allentown Central Catholic: Martinez 4-169, Edmonson 2-72, Restino 2-71, Leak 2-35, Tillman 1-76, Schmell 1-28, Hosak 1-23
INTERCEPTIONS
Jim Thorpe: None
Allentown Central Catholic: D. Johnson, Torres-Johnson