TYLERTOWN — The Cathedral Green Wave was looking to avenge a 20-point defeat to Dexter as the two teams from Region 4-1A met for the second time this season in the semifinals of the MHSAA Class 3A South State Playoffs.

And the Green Wave was just 24 minutes away from advancing to the South State title game for the first time since 1993 after taking a 16-13 lead over the Bulldogs. But Dexter clamped down on defense in the second half and rallied for a 27-16 win Friday night.

Dexter senior quarterback and co-captain Tyler Hart gave Cathedral’s defense all sorts of problems throughout the game and especially in the fourth quarter when the Bulldogs needed him to come through.

Hart scored on a 3-yard touchdown run, his third of the game, with 11:01 to go and Chris Cooley added the extra point to give the Bulldogs the lead for good at 20-16. Then with just 24 seconds left, Hart threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Raheem Robinson to put the game out of reach.

Hart ended up with 263 yard of total offense and accounted for all four of Dexter’s touchdowns. He completed 16 of 26 passes for 184 yards with no interceptions and ran 15 times for 79 yards. His touchdown runs of 6 and 1 yard early in the second quarter gave the Bulldogs a 13-8 lead.

Robinson had four catches for 34 yards to go with eight carries for 67 yards. In addition to going 3-for-3 on extra points, Cooley had five receptions for 87 yards and two carries for 14 yards.

Cathedral tried to go to the running game to keep the pressure off quarterback Caleb Upton, who at times was running for his life against Dexter’s defense in their first meeting late in the regular season.

And while the Green Wave racked up 230 yards on the ground, the Bulldogs once again made sure Upton would not beat them. He completed just 2 of 8 passes for 19 yards with two interceptions.

Yet it was Cathedral’s defense that provided the first touchdown of the game when Semmes White recovered a Dexter fumble in the end zone. Daniel Huffines ran in on the 2-point conversion to give the Green Wave an 8-0 lead at the 3:29 mark of the first quarter.

Jadarius Ealey gave the Green Wave the lead once again on his 1-yard run and ensuing 2-point conversion run with 2:08 to go until halftime. Ealey led Cathedral’s rushing attack with 83 yards on 24 carries and Huffines had 51 yards on six carries.

Cathedral, the Region 4-1A champion, ended its season with a 10-3 record. Dexter (8-5), the No. 3 seed from the same region, will take on region runner-up and defending state champion Mount Olive next Friday at 7 p.m. in the Class 1A South State title game.