Though Cathedral High School played football within the city of Natchez Friday night, its players weren’t sporting any kind of home attire. By the end of its contest at cross-town rival Trinity Episcopal, the Green Wave’s white jerseys were stained gray from flying mud and soil.

Cathedral (3-0) used pure force and size to wear down the Saints, pulling away in the second half for a 41-13 victory in the second-ever matchup between the local teams.

“Our plan was to play different kids, and they saw fresh new bodies coming at them and it didn’t faze them in the first half. We made a few adjustments that countered what they were doing,” Cathedral coach Chuck Darbonne said. “With them having as few players as they do, someone is going to have to be tired. We had good effort, and they were getting after people.”

Cathedral senior running back Greg Moore led the Green Wave’s offense, totaling 328 yards on 27 carries.

Moore found the end zone just once in the win, coming on a 77-yard run to the right side early in the fourth quarter. It was his 10th touchdown of the year.

“We knew coming in that Greg Moore was going to pound us, and I felt like we had a pretty good game plan to slow him down a little bit,” Trinity coach Graham Roberts said. “We did early, but in all honestly they just wore us down. We have 15 guys that just left it all on the field tonight.”

The Green Wave led by just one point at halftime, 14-13.

Jakarius Caston caught both of Trinity’s scores, each coming on 15 yard passes from junior quarterback Sterling Yarbrough.

As time went on, the Saints (1-2) struggled to find yardage, limited to 115 yards total in the second half.

Yarbrough ended the game passing 14-for-28 and 225 yards. However, he was picked off two times.

Cathedral’s Lance Gaude returned one interception for a 25-yard touchdown.

“We still made a lot of mental mistakes,” Roberts said. “We are still waiting to put that full game together.”

The Green Wave completed just three passes in the win, but quarterback J.t. Taylor — who shared snaps with Ben Foster— said it wasn’t a problem.

Taylor rushed for two touchdowns, coming on runs of 14 and 1. Foster connected with Ben White for a 40-yard touchdown and also rushed for an 8-yard score.

“It felt like as the game was going on, we were just taking over,” Taylor said. “It became our game at the end, and the scoreboard showed that. It was a big win for us

“It was a big rivalry game, and there was a lot of hype leading up to it. It’s a good feeling.”

Defensively for the Saints, Tre White recovered two fumbles in the first half.

“We were in that game until the third quarter,” Roberts said. “It was physicality. When I look out there and they are subbing in someone who has a perfectly white jersey on, that makes a difference. My guys are forced to stick it out and fight.”

Darbonne agreed he noticed a switch as the game progressed.

“We were just dead coming out. We didn’t have much life to us. We did have a good second half and kind of found a little spark,” he said. “We were doing what we finally were supposed to be doing.”

Cathedral is set to host Amite School Center next Friday, while Trinity will travel to Canton Academy.

 

CATHEDRAL 41, TRINITY 13

CHS 0 14 7 20 — 41

TES 0 13 0 0 — 13

CHS TES

First downs                         15                 13

Rushes-yards 35-364 26-28

Passing yards 70 225

Passing (C-A-I) 3-7-0 14-28-2

Fumbles-lost 2-2 1-1

Punts-average 2-32.5 6-33.8

Penalties-yards 3-30 8-52

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — CHS: Greg Moore 27-328, 1 TD.

RECEIVING — TES: Jakarius Caston, 2 TDs.

PASSING — TES: Sterling Yarbrough, 14-28-2, 225 yards, 2 TDs.

SCORING SUMMARY

Second Quarter

TES — Jakarius Caston 15 pass from Sterling Yarbrough (run failed), 11:46

CHS — Ben Foster 8 run (Platini Doan kick), 10:22

TES — Caston 15 pass from Yarbrough (Caston kick), 8:09

CHS — Ben White 40 pass from Ben Foster (Doan kick), 1:40

Third Quarter

CHS — Lance Gaude 25 interception return (Doan kick), 4:31

Fourth Quarter

CHS — Greg Moore 77 run (kick failed), 10:54

CHS — J.t. Taylor 14 run (Doan kick), 7:34

CHS — Taylor 1 run (Doan kick), 1:04