By Ernest Bowker

The Vicksburg Post

Cathedral has found all sorts of ways to beat St. Aloysius during a seven-year run of dominance in their Catholic school rivalry.

This one, when St. Al largely beat itself, provided a special and delicious kind of torture.

The Flashes committed seven turnovers, including three in the last 15 minutes of the game. They had a long touchdown run negated by a penalty. And, speaking of penalties, they committed several that cost them crucial field position late in the game on a muddy, soggy field.

Throw it all together, and it was Cathedral that walked out with an 18-14 victory Friday night for its eighth-consecutive win in the series. St. Al has not beaten its archrival since 2009.

“It started out that maybe it got in their heads, and then we got so out of sync we just gave it away,” St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said. “Just the way that one fell, it’s pretty tough. We’ve got to get better. We made a lot of mistakes.”

John Ashton Hicks scored twice on short touchdown runs for Cathedral, and Craig Bradley added a 10-yard TD run in the first half. Cathedral gave new head coach Chuck Darbonne his first career win.

Afterward, Darbonne got a game ball from his players and gave a hug to his father.

“My dad is here to see it. I wish my mom was here, but she’s coming back from dealing with my brother and his 1 year old in Denham Springs with the floods. It was still great to have my dad here to watch,” Darbonne said.

Cathedral did a little bit to hurt itself as well. After taking a 12-0 lead on a 3-yard touchdown run by Hicks, the Green Wave missed the ensuing extra point and then allowed Connor Bottin to return the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a score.

Later in the first half, Tyler Lewis caught a tipped pass for a 27-yard touchdown that tied the game.

Cathedral also gave up a safety in the fourth quarter on a bad punt snap.

“It was ugly. It was definitely ugly. It wasn’t the way we want to play, but whatever gets it done,” Darbonne said.

The Green Wave got one more touchdown just before halftime, however, as Hicks scored on a short run in the final minute of the second quarter to make it 18-12. After that, the Flashes pretty much self-destructed.

Two fumbles in the red zone late in the third quarter killed potential game-tying drives. The Flashes punted on their next two possessions, with a 15-yard personal foul penalty on one of the punts forcing them to re-kick and costing about 20 yards in field position.

Finally, with about 180 seconds left, the Flashes put the final nail in their own coffin. Quarterback Antonio Thompson scrambled 16 yards for a big first down, but on the next play he floated a pass over the middle that was intercepted by Cathedral at the 46-yard line.

Wallace returned it to the St. Al 14. Cathedral picked up one first down and then ran out the clock to get out of town with the win.