NATCHEZ — When the Cathedral Green Wave take the field tonight at D’Evereux Stadium, they will be trying to accomplish something not done by a Green Wave team in 17 years.

If Cathedral (8-2, 5-1) can defeat Salem (3-6, 1-5), the Green Wave will win Region 4-1A and go into the playoffs as a No. 1 seed for the first time since 1993, when they advanced all the way to the state championship game.

“This is definitely a big game for our football program,” Cathedral head coach Ron Rushing said. “We’ve talked about how important this game is. But the biggest thing we’ve talked about is playing fundamentally sound, and doing what we need to do to win the game.”

Cathedral is coming off a disappointing 26-6 loss to Dexter, which dropped them into a first place tie with Mount Olive in the region standings.

However, since the Green Wave defeated the Pirates earlier this season, they would win the tiebreaker and be the top team in the district with a win tonight.

Rushing said the loss to Dexter refocused his team before its final regular season game.

“Wednesday we had one of the better practices we’ve had in the last few weeks,” Rushing said. “I think the kids have pretty much put it behind them. The loss might have hurt our pride a little, but it didn’t mean anything as far as the standings. I’d rather lose there than in the first round of the playoffs.”

Salem’s 1-5 region record is a little deceiving, as the Wildcats are just four points shy of three region wins, having lost to Sebastopol 19-16 and St. Aloysius 7-6.

“They are a very capable team,” Rushing said. “If we don’t play well and make mistakes, they’ll be right there with us. They are a big team that tries to run the ball. We’ve got to try and get the ball from them and don’t let them keep it from us.”