NATCHEZ — Last year, Cathedral’s offense was, at times, downright offensive.

The Green Wave never could get settled into an offensive scheme, switching from the triple option to a shotgun spread to even the little used Notre Dame box.

The results spoke for themselves, as Cathedral scored 13 points or less in seven of their 11 games.

But new head coach Ron Rushing, who was the Green Wave’s offensive coordinator last year, decided to go exclusively to the spread offense this season, and the results have been explosive.

The Green Wave have scored 76 points in their first two games this season, including 48 against Loyd Star two weeks ago.

It took Cathedral eight games to score over 76 points last season.

And the difference can be seen in Cathedral’s record. While the Green Wave started last season 0-5, Cathedral is off to a 2-0 start this year and ranked No. 5 in Class 1A in the Associated Press statewide poll.

The Green Wave will try to run their record to 3-0 when they take on Enterprise tonight in their first home game.

Kickoff will be at 7:30 p.m.

Rushing said installing the spread offense was an easy decision seeing how many good skill position players Cathedral has.

“I learned a lot last year as offensive coordinator,” Rushing said. “I didn’t do a very good job adjusting to the talent we have. I love the veer and the option but you’ve got to do with the talent you’ve got.”

No one has benefited from the new high-powered offense better than junior quarterback Caleb Upton.

Upton threw for 471 yards against Loyd Star, which was the most in the United States that week according to the Web site maxpreps.com.

“I never thought I would do anything like that,” Upton said of his historic game. “It was like Playstation.”

It was also a new experience for Rushing, who is much more accustomed to coaching running football teams than high-powered passing attacks.

“I’ve never been a part of anything like that in my years of coaching,” Rushing said of Upton’s historic night. “I told him that he might not ever get close to that again, but he can always say he led the nation in passing one week, and that’s pretty cool.”

But Rushing isn’t surprised by the success his quarterback has enjoyed through two games this season.

“Caleb has always been able to throw the ball well, and he makes good decisions.” Rushing said. “He’s got a good, strong arm and has all the tools to do what he’s doing.”

Upton, in his first season as a full-time starter, said the spread offense brings a lot of excitement to the Green Wave offense.

“It’s a lot of fun to play,” Upton said. “It’s a lot more open and you’ve got a lot of room to make things happen. It’s got us really fired up this year.”

Upton is helped by a wealth of talented offensive players, including Daniel Huffines, Semmes White, Carl Hammitte and Tyler Fleming.

Huffines had over 200 yards receiving in the Loyd Star game while Hammitte had 100 receiving yards in the victory.

“They really help out a lot,” Upton said. It’s easy to trust your receivers and teammates a lot more.”

And trust is the key word for the offense, Huffines said.

“We’ve got a feeling of trust,” he said. “You don’t worry about the guy beside you, just do your job and everything will be fine.”

Huffines was the bright spot for Cathedral’s offense last season with his big play ability, but this season he has really burst out along with the Green Wave’s other skill players.

“It allows everybody to show what they can do with the ball,” Huffines said. “There’s no one guy the offense revolves around. It’s a team offense. It allows everyone to showcase their abilities.”

And believe it or not, when Rushing first envisioned Cathedral operating out of the spread, he thought it would feature more of the rushing attack, such as Mississippi State’s offense last year, and less of the passing attack, like Texas Tech’s version of the spread.

“It’s like it just turned into this,” Rushing said. “If we can run the ball 45 or 50 times a game and win that’s what we’ll do. But it just kind of turned into what it has become.”