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RAYMOND — Noah Russ threw for 227 yards and three touchdowns while Bryson Moore had three rushing touchdowns as the Cathedral High School Green Wave pulled away in the third quarter for a 40-16 win over the Central Hinds Academy Cougars Friday night.

“I thought we came out and played real aggressive early on,” Cathedral head coach Chuck Darbonne said. “I thought we had a pretty good game plan. We had some big plays offensively and played like we know how to play.”

Russ completed 15 of 26 passes and threw all three of his touchdown passes to Christian Wright, who had 10 catches for 183 yards. Russ was intercepted once, but that was the only time the Green Wave turned the ball over.

Russ threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Wright at the 9:55 mark of the first quarter and Brycen Hughes added the extra point to give Cathedral an early 7-0 lead.

“They work together a lot after practice and their timing is pretty good and I was impressed,” Darbonne said. “We also moved the ball around to the other receivers, too.”

That included Harper Jones, who had four catches for 40 yards.

After a 20-yard field goal by Central Hinds, the Green Wave scored on a 39-yard run by Moore as Cathedral led 14-3 with 4:28 to go in the first quarter. However, the Cougars responded with a 14-yard TD pass from Ranson Oakes to Walker Smith just over two minutes later.

Moore scored on a 1-yard run to make it a 21-10 game, but Ranson Oakes’ 49-yard scoring strike to Dawson Oakes made it a 21-16 game. Then with 1:32 to go until halftime, Russ threw a 15-yard TD pass to Wright and the Green Wave led 27-16 at the half. Oakes went 8-for-13 passing for 121 yards and two touchdowns.

“We were able to fight back and make some great defensive adjustments,” Darbonne said.

And that allowed Cathedral to stretch its lead in the third quarter. Russ threw a 16-yard TD pass to Wright at the 6:47 mark and Moore scored on a 1-yard run with 2:45 left in that quarter. The defense shut the Cougars out in the second half.

Bryson Moore finished with 151 rushing yards on 13 carries and had nine tackles and one sack on defense. KJ Washington had 12 tackles while Jalen Moore had eight tackles and one sack. Paxton Junkin also had nine tackles.

“I was really happy with the way the seniors stepped up. We were excited to come (up) here to Central Hinds because this was a replacement game,” Darbonne said. “We were excited we could get a game and we played real hard early on. We just have to get rid of mental mistakes with not knowing what we are doing in certain parts of the game.”

Cathedral High School (2-0) will travel to Hillcrest Christian School next Friday.