NATCHEZ — The Natchez Bulldog offense is usually the one eliciting the oohs and aahs from the crowd.

But on Friday night, it was the defense that brought the crowd to its feet multiple times in a hard-hitting 14-0 victory over Ferriday.

The Natchez defense smothered the Trojans offense, holding them to just three first downs and 126 yards of total offense, 56 of which came on one play.

“I’m so proud of those guys” Natchez High coach Lance Reed said. “I’m very impressed with our effort. As long as we keep playing like that, it’s going to be a good season.”

And Natchez High defenders didn’t just settle for making tackles. They laid numerous hard hits on Ferriday ball-carriers, including one in the fourth quarter that knocked standout Trojan running back and receiver Devante Scott out of the game with bruised ribs.

“We talked about being big hitters,” Reed said. “We set the tone and protected our house tonight. I was proud to see that effort.”

With Natchez’s defense so dominant, the Bulldog offense didn’t have to do very much.

They dominated in time of possession and yardage, but only put the ball in the end zone twice, the first on a 33-yard pass from Javon Washington to Damion Williams in the first quarter and the second on a Kevin Bailey two-yard run early in the third quarter.

Bailey was the workhorse for the Natchez offense, rushing for 109 yards on 19 carries.

Natchez’s defense set the tone on its first defensive series.

Ferriday had a first and goal at the 5-yard line after recovering a Natchez fumble and looked as if they were going to get on the scoreboard first.

However, the Bulldog defense didn’t budge.

They stopped the Trojans on four consecutive running plays to take over on downs.

That was only the beginning of the frustration for the Ferriday offense, which was stopped twice more on downs inside the 20-yard line by the tenacious Natchez defense.

The Trojans had a chance to tie the score or take the lead right before halftime after Zu’Raine Thompson intercepted a Washington pass and returned it to the 16-yard line.

Ferriday came oh-so-close to scoring on third down, as Thompson found Alfred Brown in the back of the end zone. Brown caught the ball, but came down out of bounds.

The drive ended on the next play as Thompson once again threw incomplete.

Ferriday had a third chance inside the 20 turned away on their first possession of the second half, after Thompson hit Brown on a 56-yard pass play to the 17-yard line.

However, on third down, Brian Isaac sacked Thompson forced a fumble and recovered it himself to stop the drive.

Ferriday never threatened to score again.

“When we get inside the 20, we’ve got to stick it in,” Ferriday coach Chad Harkins said. “We’re going to work on that and we will be able to do that. This isn’t the end, this is only the beginning of something that’s going to be real nice.”

While Ferriday did come up on the short end of the score, Harkins thought his team competed well against the Mississippi 6A school.

“Our goal is to compete for a Louisiana 2A state championship,” Harkins said. “That was our goal before and it’s our goal now. I thought we got a lot of good out of this game. We got to expose our kids to a tough opponent and that will help us down the road.”