NATCHEZ — After a big victory to open the season last week, the last thing the Cathedral Green Wave wanted to see was a big disruption going into the second game of the season.

However, thanks to Hurricane Gustav, that’s exactly what they got.

The Green Wave will travel to Tylertown tonight to take on the Salem Wildcats after having to adjust their practice schedule and game plan due to the hurricane.

Cathedral coach Craig Beesley said the team has only missed one day of practice — Monday — but the team has not been able to have practice outdoors and has instead spent the week practicing in the gymnasium.

“That will affect the timing of our passing routes early in the game,” Beesley said. “Hopefully we will be able to overcome that.”

Beesley said the lack of timing, plus the sloppy field conditions that will await the two teams on Friday, will affect the offensive play calling.

“Their field was under water on Monday, but they haven’t had any bad weather since Tuesday,” Beesley said. “The field conditions will determine the type of plays we run.”

However, Cathedral knows they can run the ball if forced to because of sloppy field conditions and lack of passing practice thanks to last week’s performance.

Cathedral running back Jeb White rushed for 115 yards and two touchdowns in the Green Wave’s 23-0 win over Dexter.

“We had hoped to run the ball, but I didn’t know we’d be able to run it as well as we did last week,” Beesley said. “We’re considered a passing team, but when you run the ball as well as we did, it gives the opposing defense something else they have to plan for.”

The hurricane didn’t just affect Cathedral’s practice schedule this week. The team still doesn’t have all of its players back after several evacuated before the storm hit.

“We’ve still got some players up in north Mississippi, including a couple of starters,” Beesley said. “We had 20 players out of 31 at practice (Wednesday) but everyone is supposed to be back. We’ll put in a simple game plan to prepare them for the game.”

While some might think that the lack of physical practices might hurt Cathedral tonight, Green Wave quarterback Preston Edwards doesn’t think that is the case.

“It’s not going to be a problem,” Edwards said. “We haven’t hit all week so we’re anxious to get out there, play football and win the game big.”

Salem is coming off a 1-9 season in 2007 and lost to Cathedral 33-30 last year when Edwards threw a 2-yard touchdown pass to Braxton Fondren with two seconds left.

Even if the Green Wave doesn’t win on Friday, Beesley it is still an important part of the healing process for the Miss-Lou in the wake of Hurricane Gustav.

“The people in Natchez and the Miss-Lou are trying to get back to normal and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Beesley said. “We’re just trying to get back to a normal routine.”