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Cathedral High's Maddie Verucchi. (File Photo)

Cathedral High School's Meredith Lessley kicks the ball to an open teammate against East Rankin Academy. (Patrick Murphy | The Natchez Democrat)

Cathedral High School’s Gracie Foster was selected to the 2022 All-Metro Team.

East Rankin Academy's Madeline Logan kicks the ball from the corner against Cathedral High School. Logan scored five goals for East Rankin. (Patrick Murphy | The Natchez Democrat)

East Rankin Academy's Bre Harrison throws the ball in against Cathedral High School. (Patrick Murphy | The Natchez Democrat)

NATCHEZ — The Cathedral High School Lady Green Wave ended their season with a 7-1 loss to the East Rankin Academy Lady Patriots on Tuesday night at D’Evereaux Stadium in the MAIS Division II playoffs.

Cathedral High School finished the season 9-4 and as the 2020 South region champions. Dennis Hogue, Cathedral High head soccer coach, said he could not be more proud of the Lady Green Wave this season.

“The only teams that beat us were St. Aloysius twice, ACCS and Laurel Christian School. The players had a great season and I wouldn’t trade this group with anyone in the world,” said Hogue. “We missed Mae Holyoak, our stopper, who did not play in the match. She is strong on defense and she could have allowed Madeline Logan to score two or three goals.”

Cathedral’s Izzy Dupré scored the only goal for the Lady Green Wave in the match. Jacie Ratliff beat a Lady Patriots’ defender on the right side of the field, passed the ball to Dupré in the middle of the field and she scored from 35-yards away from the goal in the first half. Gracie Foster, Dupré’s teammate, said she was glad Dupré made the goal.

“We were down and her goal picked us up,” Foster said. “It just gave us a spark to keep going.”

The Lady Patriots’ controlled the match after Dupré’s goal. Madeline Logan led the Lady Patriots with five goals and the Lady Patriots had 18 shots on goal. Savannah Smithers scored a goal for East Rankin and the Lady Green Wave scored on themselves for East Rankin’s seventh goal in the match. Logan said she takes every opportunity she gets to help the Lady Patriots win.

Cathedral had one shot on goal and Meredith Lessley, Cathedral’s goalkeeper, made eight saves in the match. Hogue said he was proud of Cathedral’s toughness in the match.

“When the game was out of reach, nobody laid down and everybody kept fighting and plugging away,” Hogue said. “One of the aspects in the game we did well at was communication. We had been pressing the importance of communication in practices this week. The players knew where to go, what to do and they supported each other on the field.”

The Lady Patriots were no stranger to facing the Lady Green Wave. Both teams faced each other in the first round of the 2019 season with East Rankin Academy coming away with the 2-0 victory over Cathedral. Steven Simmons, East Rankin Academy head soccer coach, said it felt like déjà vu playing against Cathedral.

“We came here last year and we knew what we were going to expect,” Simmons said. “It was going to be a tough physical match. If we gave Cathedral time on the ball, then we know they could hurt us. We had a great start to the game with two early goals scored. I didn’t think Cathedral could handle our movement off of the ball and that was why we were successful.”

East Rankin Academy moved onto the semifinal round of the MAIS Division II bracket to face the Hartfield Academy Lady Hawks, the No. 1 seed from the Central region. Hartfield Academy hosted the Adams County Christian School Lady Rebels, the No. 2 seed from the South region, on Tuesday night. The Lady Hawks came away with an 11-0 win over the Lady Rebels (11-5).

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