NATCHEZ — With approximately a minute left in regulation and Cathedral trailing 3-2, the Green Wave needed someone to step up fast Tuesday night in an exhibition game at Adams County Christian.

Jake McKinney, who had already scored for the Green Wave, answered the call, scoring a goal against ACCS and tying the game 3-3 at the end of regulation.

From there, the Green Wave’s experience in penalty kick shootouts took over, as Cathedral came out on top 3-0. Green Wave coach Rick Simons said his players’ practice with penalty kicks paid off.

“We haven’t practiced PKs very much at all this year,” Simons said. “These guys will go out and kick PKs before practice starts, and sometimes they hang around at the end and do it on their own.”

Even with a loss, ACCS head coach Jimmy Allgood said he was happy with how his team performed against a more established program.

“For a first-year (program) playing against Cathedral, to be leading up until the last few minutes of the game is just awesome,” Allgood said.

“Something our kids have to work on that they haven’t worked on yet in soccer is a little thing called PKs. We haven’t gotten to that yet, but we’re going to get there.”

The Rebels’ Johnny Smith struck first, scoring on an assist from Brandon Sanders in the first half. Cathedral tied it 1-1 when Austin Walker hit McKinney on a corner throw, who headbutted the ball into the net.

In the second half, Smith scored his second goal for ACCS to give the Rebels a 2-1 lead. Allgood was complimentary of Smith’s performance and leadership on the field.

“Johnny Smith is the quarterback, leader and probably the main meat and potatoes of this bunch,” Allgood said.

Walker tied the game 2-2 later in the second half, giving him two goals for the evening. ACCS took a 3-2 lead with 12 minutes left when Lester Wells hit a slow roller into the net.

Allgood didn’t call the outcome a moral victory, but he did say he was happy to see the improvement in his players Tuesday night.

“These players left it all out on the field tonight,” Allgood said. “I’m as proud as a peacock. We actually, for the first time, in my opinion, we played a full soccer match.”

Simons, on the other hand, said his team got off to a slow start.

“This kind of reminds of last year, when we had quality players that started out games like this from behind and would come back and win the game in the end,” he said.

“They kind of had the same mentality, but we had a lot of seniors last year. We lost eight or nine seniors, so it’s going to be a long road. It’s a rebuilding year for us.”