VICKSBURG &8212; St. Aloysius made the stop it had to make and then made the drive it had to have to hang on and beat Natchez Cathedral 12-7 Thursday night at Balzli Field.

Flashes linebacker Alex Halinski stopped a fourth down Cathedral play at the St. Al for a yard loss to end a Green Wave threat to take the lead. Then in the fourth quarter, Halinski powered a drive that ate up seven precious minutes, moving the ball from their own six to the Cathedral 30.

When Cathedral finally stopped the march on downs, only 3 minutes, 29 seconds remained. The Green Wave picked up one first down on a St. Al late hit, but then saw quarterback Patrick McDonough misfire on both a third and fourth down pass.

St. Al (1-0) ran off all but 12 seconds before giving the Green Wave one last desperate shot which was quickly snuffed on Marsh Willis&8217; interception at midfield.

&8220;We had our opportunties with two downs from the two,&8221; said Cathedral coach Ken Beesley. &8220;The fumbled snap on third down cost us. They really took it to us in the first half. Their line just dominated us. But then we got our second wind to start the second half and had our chance.&8221; St. Al coach Jim Taylor was glad to get the hard-earned win in spite of his team&8217;s litany of mistakes with costly penalties.

&8220;We played hard and got a victory which is something we didn&8217;t do a lot of last year,&8221; Taylor said. &8220;I thought we stopped ourselves with the penalities. Had we scored there that other time we were down there in the

first half, we could&8217;ve opened the game up better.&8221;

St. Al built a 12-0 first half lead by dominating the line of scrimmage. The

Flashes outgained the Green Wave 293 to 84 in the first 24 minutes.

Halinski, who finished with 179 yards on 29 carries, had both St. Al

touchdowns. The first score came on a 35-yard rumble with 8:24 left in the

first quarter.

The second came on an 11-yard sweep that capped a massive, 14-play, 94-yard

march that chewed up 8:30 off the clock.

Cathedral got back in the game with some help from St. Al. An interception

by McOonough was returned 37 yards to the St. Al 33. Two plays later, Taylor

Brantley busted a draw for a 33-yard TD run. Harrison Burns added the kick

to make it 12-7 with 8:30 left in the third quarter.

St. Al went three-and-out on its next possession and Cathedral had the ball

back on its own 15. Aided by a 15-yard face mask penalty, the Wave got to

the 40. McOonough then hit a pair of passes, the first an 11-yarder to

Forrest White carried the ball past midfield. A 42-yard catch and gain by

Daniel Jenkins brought the Wave to the Flashes&8217; five.

St. Al stuffed the Wave for a 1-yard loss on first down. On second down,

Jess Morrison picked up five to the one. A bad snap was dropped by McOonough

on third down resulting in a yard loss.

On fourth down, a high snap messed up the timing and Morrison was cut down

by Halinski for a yard loss.

For the game, Cathedral was outgained 389 to 178. McOonough led the Green

Wave by hitting on 8-of-20 passing for 102 yards. Brantley had 78 yards

rushing on 10 carries.