After suffering its third loss in a row in a 45-10 blowout on homecoming night, Cathedral head coach Chuck Darbonne concluded the Green Wave had lost its confidence.

“We have been struggling the past three weeks,” Darbonne said. “It seems to be a confidence problem. It is not a repetition problem, it is not a know what to do problem. It is a confidence problem.”

The Green Wave (4-3) fell to the Central Hinds Academy Cougars (4-3) in a MAIS AAA non-district match Friday night. The Cougars outgained the Green Wave 351 to 171 yards.

The Green Wave struggled in the trenches and it showed, as 331 of the Cougars’ yards were on the ground, while the Green Wave only mustered 58 yards rushing.

“We played awful. Awful effort. No intensity. We just did not execute,” Darbonne said. “We got beat in a physical game.”

On the other hand, the Cougars played a great game, Darbonne said.

“They played hard. They played physical. It was a good high school football game,” he said. “We aim to be like that. That is our goal, to play some physical football.”

The Green Wave had forced the Cougars to fourth and goal on its first drive of the game, but sophomore quarterback Beau Coumbe forced his way in from the 1-yard line with 8:10 remaining in the first quarter. The Green Wave did block the extra point back, limiting the damage to 6-0.

Cathedral drove into its opponent’s territory, but ultimately turned the ball over on downs on the ensuing drive. It took the Cougars nine plays to get back into the end zone starting from their own 45. Prentice Brown forced in the score on third and goal, also from the 1-yard line with 2:13 left in the first quarter.

Brown gained the point back the Cougars had lost on a two-point conversion run.

After Cathedral was forced to punt, the Cougars again scored — a 38-yard field goal by Jance Riley with 9:14 to go in the half.

Cathedral finally got something going on the next drive as Greg Moore found a hole and turned it in to a 41-yard gain. Moore finished the game with 62 yards on the ground on 8 attempts.

But the Green Wave did not capitalize and turned the ball over on downs following several incomplete passes by quarterback J.t. Taylor.

“It was just a lack of concentration,” Darbonne said. “We did not execute in the big game situations as we did early in the season.”

Taylor finished the game passing 7-for-22 with one interception. He threw for 94 yards.

Brown sealed the deal with 7 minutes to go in the half as he found a hole and was not caught on his way to a 71-yard touchdown.  The Cougars would add three more scores in the game.

Cathedral got on the board with the clock winding down to the final minutes of the first half with a 39-yard kick by Platini Doan.

The Green Wave’s second score came when Caden Poole reeled in a 22-yard pass from Taylor as the clock was winding down on the game.

Cathedral will travel to face St. Aloysius next Friday.