BOGUE CHITTO – During this football season, the NatchezCathedral Green Wave had not been getting many breaks to go theirway. Friday night, the breaks went the way of the Green Wave asCathedral handed the Bogue Chitto Bobcats a 35-12 defeat in thefinal game of the regular season at Troy Smith Field.

Bogue Chitto (5-6, 3-1) had five turnovers in the game. Division6-2A Cathedral (2-7, 1-4) converted three turnovers intotouchdowns.

Division 7-1A runner-up Bogue Chitto is at Lake Friday night forthe first round of the Class 1A state football playoffs. Lake (6-4,4-0) defeated Scott Central 35-14 for the Division 5-1Achampionship last Friday. Division 7-1A champ Dexter (8-3, 4-0)will host Scott Central (6-4, 3-1).

“We made the big plays when we needed to,” said Cathedral headcoach Ken Beesley following the win Friday night. “It’s been a longtime coming. We got the breaks tonight. We lost the last threegames by fumbling on the one-yard line. Tonight, we got theturnovers.”

Halfback Jonathan Jackson, a 5-foot-9, 154-pound freshman, ledthe Cathedral running game with 23 rushes for 118 yards and threetouchdowns.

“We didn’t play real good,” said Bogue Chitto head coach CarlCole. “Cathedral stopped us on defense. After our first drive, wecouldn’t move the football. And we had too many turnovers.”

Bogue Chitto took the opening kickoff and marched 59 yards downto the Cathedral two-yard line where the Bobcats were stopped onfourth down and two yards to go for the touchdown.

With 4:58 left in the first quarter, Cathedral drove thefootball 98 yards and scored with five seconds left on a six-yardrun by Jackson. Junior kicker Byron Zerby kicked his first of fiveextra points for a 7-0 lead.

The Bobcats punched in their first TD of the game early in thesecond quarter when wide receiver Scott Edwards caught a 31-yardpass from quarterback Jacob Legget for the six points. The run fortwo points failed and the Green Wave held a 1-point, 7-6 lead.

Cathedral struck back to score a pair of quick touchdowns withless than two minutes remaining in the first half. Green Wavequarterback Bart Lane connected to Mark Steckler for a 32-yard TD.Cathedral’s Ben Eidt intercepted a Leggett pass and returned it tothe Bobcat 28-yard line to set up the next score. With 11 secondsremaining, Lane connected to Clay Hammons for a 22-yard TD. At thehalf, Cathedral led Bogue Chitto 21-6.

“I was afraid they (Bogue Chitto) would run right at us,”Beesley stated. “We stopped them on the two and it got them out oftheir game.”

In third-quarter action, the Green Wave tacked on two moretouchdowns to go ahead 35-6. Jackson scored both touchdowns on runsof four yards with 10:00 left and one yard with 1:01 remaining. Thefour-yard TD was set up on a pass interception by Brent Tosspon andthe one-yard score was set up on a fumble recovery by ConorGibson.

In the fourth quarter, Bogue Chitto moved the ball 55 yards toset up a one-yard plunge by senior tailback Johnathon Cutrer. Thepass for two points failed.

“Natchez Cathedral was a lot better than their record shows,”said Cole. “The sweep has given us a lot of trouble all year. Wecouldn’t stop them consistently.”

The Bobcats had eight first downs and 202 total yards onoffense.

Bogue Chitto rushed the football 29 times for 78 yards. Sparkingthe ground game with 14 carries for 65 yards was JohnathonCuter.

Leggett completed 9 of 18 passes for 124 yards and wasintercepted three times. Catching three passes for 51 yards wasEdwards. Cody Wallace had four catches for 45 yards.

Defensively, Michael Blackwell led the Bogue Chittodefense with 10 tackles. Ace Wallace and John Wallace made eighttackles apiece.