Healthy Irish RB Commit Markese Stepp Has Cathedral Primed For Playoff Run
With 8:49 to go in the Indiana Class 5A Sectional 13 title game, Indianapolis Cathedral led Indianapolis Decatur Central 28-21.
On a 4th and 7 from their own 35-yard line, Decatur threw a long pass into double coverage that fell to the ground.
Cathedral took over on downs inside Decatur territory, and Notre Dame running back commit Markese Stepp smelled blood.
On the very next play, Stepp took off through a massive hole in the right side of the line and put Cathedral up 35-21 with a 35-yard score that effectively put the game out of reach.
Cathdreal would go on to win 41-21 and secure a spot in the state quarterfinals.
“Once I saw the hole, I knew I just had to outrun a few people,” Stepp said. “I got loose, and it was just great. I had to break tackles in the second level, so I’m just happy I got there and put it on ice.”
On the surface, it was a game-icing touchdown to send Cathedral to the next round of the playoffs, but it goes deeper than that.
That touchdown was the exclamation point on a huge night for the Notre Dame commit, who ended the game with 249 yards and four touchdowns on 29 carries.
After sitting out all of his junior season and a good chunk of his senior year with a hamstring injury, the performance was a sort of return to the stage for Stepp, and a message to the rest of Indiana that Cathedral is coming to take everything in front of them.
“He missed a bunch of games this year, and he’s starting to come into his own,” Cathedral head coach Rick Streiff said. “This is the team that we thought we would have, but we’ve had some pieces missing. We’re heading in the right direction, I hope.”
It was obviously a huge night for Stepp, but the future Irish running back isn’t one to shower himself in self-praise.
Stepp was sure to direct all credit for his performance to his offensive line, which features four-star Alabama guard commit Emil Ekiyor.
According to Stepp, there were some that didn’t think Cathedral could hang with Decatur, so the Irish came into the game angry and with something to prove.
“The offensive line just got down and dirty with them,” Stepp said. “There was a lot of talk about how their team was going to athlete us, so we took that personally. We knew if we were physical with them we would come out with the win, and that’s pretty much what we did.”
Stepp said the physicality of the offensive line combined with bruising running style set Cathedral up for success from the beginning.
“We were physical up front and had a physical running style on top of that,” Stepp said. “That all came together and worked out pretty well for us.”
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