STRINGER — Andrew Pierce’s 30-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Bolton on a fourth-down play with 8:35 to go in the fourth quarter proved to be huge as Stringer pulled away for a 48-33 win over Cathedral Friday night.

In a pivotal match-up involving two teams trying to get into the top four in Region 4-1A, Stringer’s combination of running and passing proved to be too much for Cathedral to stop, or even slow down.

“I thought we played a very good game. We got within two points in the fourth quarter, but we never could get that lead. We gave a good effort, but we couldn’t get over the hump,” Green Wave head coach Craig Beesley said.

Cathedral (3-4, 3-4) did indeed give a valiant effort against a good Stringer team. Preston Edwards completed 16-of-32 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns. His 3-yard touchdown run with 10:26 remaining in the fourth quarter cut Stringer’s lead to 35-33, but that would be as close to the lead as the Green Wave would get.

JEB White led the Green Wave’s rushing attack with 14 carries for 104 yards with one touchdown to go with two catches for 19 yards and a touchdown.

Daniel Jenkins had five catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns.

“All of them played well tonight,” Beesley said. “Dylan White really stepped up for us on offense.”

Beesley added that he knew the Red Devils would have success running and passing the ball. But what he didn’t expect was that they would rack up 517 yards of total offense — 315 yard on the ground and 202 through the air.

Pierce’s touchdown pass in the fourth quarter was his third of the game as he completed eight-of-11 passes for those 202 yards with one interception. Ervin Gavin led Stringer’s ground game with 19 carries for 215 yards and three touchdowns.

Bolton had five catches for 105 yards while Alridge added three catches for 97 yards.

“They have two good receivers. In the second half, we tried to double Bolton and he still had two touchdowns,” Beesley said.

The scoring went back and forth between the two teams in the first half, which ended with the Red Devils (4-2, 4-2) holding a 21-20 lead.

The Red Devils added two more touchdowns in the third quarter while shutting out the Green Wave offense, which proved to be key to the victory.