NATCHEZ — Hunter McKeivier couldn’t be anything but disappointed as he walked off the field at Bobby Marks Stadium Friday night.

With his Adams County Christian School team on the wrong end of a lopsided game against Cathedral High School, McKeivier said his players didn’t meet the challenge that Cathedral brought to the Rebels’ home field.

And the scoreboard reflected it, with the Green Wave running away by a final score of 45-12.

“Cathedral’s a good team, and they showed it,” McKeivier said. “We didn’t play well at all. Honestly, to tell you the truth, I’m a little embarrassed by the way we played. They hit us in the mouth, and we just didn’t retaliate the proper way we should have.

“We let them bring it to us instead of us taking it to them.”

Cathedral rode the Green Wave of momentum its passing game provided, with senior quarterback Caleb Upton going 8-for-12 in passing for 203 yards and three touchdowns. The Green Wave led 39-0 at halftime and never looked back as a continuous clock ran the entire second half.

“I don’t know what his stats were, but (Upton’s) the guy that gets us going,” Cathedral head coach Ron Rushing said.

“He gives the ball out to everyone and does a good job reading defenses. They changed the defenses on us after the first three plays, and we adjusted. He did a good job for us tonight.”

With 10:07 left in the first quarter, Cathedral scored its first touchdown on a 29-yard touchdown pass from Upton to Khalil Brice. Cathedral scored again with 6:15 in the first on a 6-yard reception by Carl Hammitte.

On the ensuing Rebels possession, J.D. Ealey recovered an ACCS fumble and ran it in from 36 yards out with 5:50 to go in the first.

The Rebels drove the ball to the Cathedral 6 but failed to score on fourth down, giving the Green Wave a long field to go down with less than a minute left in the first. But Upton hit Ishmael Blackmon with a 94-yard touchdown pass to put Cathedral up by four touchdowns with 26 seconds remaining in the first.

With 9:40 remaining in the second quarter, a blocked punt on the ACCS 10 set up a 10-yard touchdown reception for the Green Wave’s Daniel Huffines, who finished the game with three catches for 55 yards. Ealey had a touchdown run of 31 yards with 3:14 left in the second to give Cathedral its final touchdown before halftime.

Tyler Flemming caught a 43-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Thomas Garrity as time expired in the third quarter to tally Cathedral’s final touchdown of the game.

ACCS finally got on the board with 4:32 left in the fourth on a 12-yard pass from quarterback Johnny Smith to Ethan Loyed.

The Green Wave finished with 246 total yards in passing. Smith was just 5-for-13 with 36 yards Friday night for the Rebels.

The Rebels out gained Cathedral on the ground with 143 yards rushing to the Green Wave’s 136. Christopher Perry was ACCS’s leading rusher, finishing with 68 yards on 12 carries. Ealey had 76 yards on six carries for Cathedral.

With nine penalties for 77 1/2 yards, McKeivier said his team needed to clean up its on-field discipline.

“I told my guys it’s really simple: You play games, you don’t play the person,” McKeivier said. “You play the game the right way, and everything else works out for the best, and we didn’t play it to the best of our ability tonight.”

ACCS (0-1) will travel to Hillcrest Christian next Friday. Cathedral (1-0) has a bye week next week.