NATCHEZ — After wasting opportunity after opportunity in a scoreless game, all it took was a Franklin County goal to jolt them into taking advantage of those opportunities.

The Green Wave scored two goals in two minutes after Franklin County had scored to take the lead in a 2-1 Cathedral victory that put them within reach of their first district championship in three years.

Cathedral can win the district title with a home victory over Wesson on Thursday.

“We got a big win tonight and we need another one on Thursday,” Cathedral coach Paul Burns said. “Winning the district title and getting to host in the first round (of the playoffs) is huge.”

After a scoreless first half, Cathedral (13-2, 4-1) dominated the possession at the start of the second half, and had several good shots on goal.

However it was Franklin County that drew first blood when Kin Mullins scored on a free kick five yards outside the box in the 25th minute of the second half.

But that goal seemed to wake up the Green Wave, as it only took a minute for them to answer when Hunter Foster sent a ball across the face of the goal that Aaron White punched in.

And just one minute after that, the Green Wave used a little trickery to take the lead for good.

Cathedral had been awarded a free kick some 15 yards outside the box.

Instead of shooting it straight towards the goal, White touched it to his left, and Foster ran up and ripped a left-footed shot past the unsuspecting defense and goalkeeper into the back of the net.

“We put that one in on Friday,” Burns said. (Assistant coach) Rick (Simons) came up with that. We’ve been doing regular free kicks and haven’t been having any success with them, so we thought we’d try something different. We actually have about three of them and that’s the one that worked best in practice. Hunter really hit it good. I don’t think the goalkeeper ever saw it.”

After Foster’s goal, Cathedral packed the defense back and didn’t let Franklin County get a good shot on goal the remaining 13 minutes of the game, preserving the 2-1 victory.

It was a sweet victory for Cathedral, not only because it put them within one victory of winning the district title, but also because it avenged the Green Wave’s overtime loss to the Bulldogs earlier this month.

“This was almost entirely different than the first game,” Burns said. “They controlled the game early and it made me a little nervous. But when they scored it was like a wake up call. They scored in the 25th minute, and we scored in the 26th and 27th minute. I’d call that an answer.”

Cathedral girls 3, Franklin County 2

Cathedral got a big district victory over Franklin County, but it wasn’t quite big enough to give the Lady Wave the district championship.

Because Franklin County had defeated Cathedral 3-0 earlier this season, the Lady Wave had to beat the Lady Bulldogs by at least three goals and then beat Wesson Thursday to claim the championship.

And it looked like that might happen after Cathedral (10-4, 6-1) took a 3-1 lead in the second half.

However, a goal by Karlee Mullins pulled Franklin County to within one goal and put an end to Cathedral’s title hopes.

“I told the girls before the game that I wasn’t concerned with winning by three goals, I just wanted to win,” Cathedral coach David Gaude said. “They got up one goal early but we didn’t give up. I’m real proud of them.”

Maddie Kirkwood tied the score with a goal before halftime and Tess Fairbanks scored to give the Lady Wave the lead.

Marty Ellard then scored to put Cathedral up 3-1 and it looked like they might score another to win by three.

However, Mullins put an end to those thoughts with a goal late in the game.

“I think we were thinking about that third goal,” Gaude said. “We were trying to push up and didn’t defend enough in the back and they got a goal on us.”

Cathedral will lock up second place in the district with a win over Wesson on Thursday night.