photo by Marcus Frazier

Cathedral’s Dylan White tries to break away from Bogue Chitto’s James Anderson and Josh Graham .

Bobcats' speed overtakes Wave

By Jeff Edwards (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Monday, September 29, 2008

NATCHEZ — Cathedral coach Craig Beesley thought his team had a good chance to play well and win against Bogue Chitto last Friday.

What he didn’t count on was the speed of the Bobcats.

That speed carved up the Green Wave defense to the tune of 44 points and 400 total yards.

“They’re more of a trapping team with more speed than they have power,” Beesley said. “St. Al (the previous week’s opponent) was a power team. (Bogue Chitto’s) speed is what gave them the advantage over us.”

Bogue Chitto ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown, and then after recovering a squib kickoff, scored two plays later to make the score 14-0 before the Cathedral offense even got on the field.

“They just came out and took control of the game,” Beesley said. “Mentally we never got into the game. It looked like we still had a little hangover from the game the previous week (against St. Al).”

Cathedral’s schedule doesn’t get any easier, as the Wave travel to play region power Mount Olive this Friday.

“We’ve got to go back and get these kids ready to play again,” Beesley said. We have to be prepared for everything this week. Mount Olive has a lot of speed. They throw the ball well and can run it well too.”

The Wave might be without running back and receiver Kole Junkin as well. Beesley said Junkin has a pulled muscle and will be kept out of practice this week. He is questionable for Friday’s game.

Like Cathedral, Natchez High is also looking for answers after a 36-10 loss to Meridian on Friday.

Bulldog coach Lance Reed said his team just wasn’t ready to play on Friday.

“(Meridian) was just better prepared than we were,” Reed said. “They were more ready that night, and it showed.”

Reed said his team will go back to basics this week in practice in preparation for their game at Oak Grove on Friday.

“We may have tried to do too much,” Reed said. “We’re going back to doing some of the things we know we can do well and focus on getting better at that.”

While Reed is disappointed in the loss on Friday, it was only Natchez’s first region game of the season, and the Bulldogs have time to get back on track and make a playoff push.

“It’s a long district season, and we’ll get better,” Reed said. “We’ve got a good Oak Grove team this week, so this will be a good measuring stick to improve. We look forward to playing them and hope to come out with a victory.”

Other games on Friday night include Franklin County at Jefferson County, Northwood-Lena at Ferriday, Vidalia at Jena and Wilkinson County at Tylertown.

All kickoffs will be at 7 p.m.