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RAYMOND — The Cathedral High School Green Wave nearly overcame a 19-point deficit in the third quarter, but the Central Hinds Academy Cougars made the stops they needed to and scored a key touchdown late in the fourth quarter for a 41-30 victory last Friday night.

It looked like for sure that Central Hinds Academy was on its way to yet another blowout win over Cathedral after Brayden Bullock picked off a pass by Green Wave starting quarterback Tristan Fondren and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown to give the Cougars a 33-14 lead with 5:10 left in the third quarter.

However, the Green Wave would not go away quite so quickly. Fondren quickly drove them down the field and threw a touchdown pass with 3:36 to go and the ensuing two-point conversion made it a 33-22 game.

After Cathedral recovered its own onside kick, Fondren ran in from one yard to out and Tris McCoy’s two-point conversion run made it a 33-30 game with less than a minute to go in the third quarter.

Unfortunately, the Green Wave’s offense sputtered and cramps eventually got to them just as did to the Cougars earlier in the second half. Central Hinds quarterback Brady Clark scored on a long touchdown run and Casen Macke scored on the two-point conversion run to give them an 11-point lead with 2:00 to in the game.

Fondren accounted for three total touchdowns, two passing and one rushing. Terrance Lee had an 80-yard kickoff return late in the first quarter that kept the Green Wave in the game after getting down 13-0.

But the combination of Clark and Macke proved to be too much. Macke himself had two touchdown runs and a 30-yard TD pass from Clark.

Cathedral (0-1) plays host to longtime arch-rival St. Aloysius High School next Friday at 7 p.m.