From

staff reports

TYLERTOWN &045; Even with the return of several key players returning from injuries and a different type of offense, the Cathedral Green Wave still had problems getting points on the board and with turnovers.

The result was a 35-12 loss to the Dexter Bulldogs, which has been mired near the bottom of Region 4-1A in recent years, Friday night in the region opener for both teams.

Andrew Ellard, Justin Dollar and Murphy Hinson returned to the Green Wave hoping to give the offense a much-needed spark as well as get them a win.

Instead, it was the Bulldogs offense who got the spark in the form of Mario Miller, who had nearly 200 yards of total offense and had a hand in four of the five touchdowns the Bulldogs scored.

Miller scored on runs of 45, 24 and 37 yards and threw a 58-yard touchdown pass to Bradley Weary late in the second quarter.

Dexter led Cathedral 21-0 on Miller’s 24-yard scoring run with 11 seconds remaining until halftime when Ellard received the ensuing kickoff and took it 80 yards for a touchdown to cut the lead to 21-6 at the half.

But Nigel Fortenberry ended all hopes of a Green Wave comeback as intercepted a Patrick McDonough pass and returned it 80 yards for a touchdown for a 27-6 lead with 8:48 to go in the third quarter.

Wilkinson 48, Jackson (La.) 0

JACKSON, La. &045; The Wildcats defense held Chiefs quarterback Greg Williams in check and the running game had its way with the Chiefs’ defense as Alvin Fosselman and LaKendrick Russ each ran for over 100 yards as the Wildcats improved to 3-0 with the easy win.

Fosselman scored three touchdowns and Russ added three touchdown runs and two two-point conversion runs as the Wildcats amassed 335 total rushing yards.

V. Jackson 14, Jefferson 12

FAYETTE &045; The Tigers lost running back Ernest Havard to a broken leg and never could completely recover as the Falcons held on by stopping the Tigers on a two-point conversion attempt that would have sent the game into overtime.

Trevor Malone’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Kristopher Williams cut the Falcons’ lead to two points with 4 seconds remaining in regulation, but the Falcons’ defense held its ground and stopped the Tigers on the biggest play of the game.

&045;

Patrick Jones