On a cool winter afternoon, Natchez Cathedral Green Waveoverwhelmed the Brookhaven Panthers boys and girls soccer teams,defeating the boys, 3-1, and the girls, 4-0. The Panthers boys’junior varsity came away with a win, 6-4.

In the first match, the BHS junior varsity team took a 2-1 leadinto half time behind two goals scored by Tyler Alexander. Both ofAlexander’s goals were set-up by solid midfield play and his ownsecond effort. The Green Wave’s Jeremy Sanders moved the ball downthe field and fed Will Carter who scored. The Green Wave outshotthe Panthers 10-3 but Brookhaven’s first-time goalkeeper WillThibodeaux thwarted their attack virtually every time. The GreenWave opened the second half scoring when Carter netted his secondof the match, evening the score. Cathedral’s Jeff Dollar scoredtwice giving the Green Wave a 4-2 lead. However, the young Pantherskept pressing. Goals from Jonathan Davy and Giles Langston tied thescore at 4-4. Alexander scored two more times making the finalscore 6-4. This victory was the highlight of the Panthers soccerouting.

The Lady Panthers never got their game on track. Positional playwas non-existent and the girls quickly found themselves down 3-0 atthe half behind goals from Cathedral’s Adrian Mullins, BrittanyLaird, and Joanna Stubbs. While the Lady Panthers showed someslight improvement in the second half, they could not score.Mullins added her second goal of the game for the 4-0 final. TheGreen Wave outshot the Lady Panthers 22-2.

The boys’ varsity team played like a team that had not had anorganized practice in awhile – and they did not practice over theentire holiday break. Cathedral took the opening kick off down thefield and scored their first goal in the first minute when anunmarked Patrick Biglane headed the ball past Brookhaven’s DomenickDiPaolo. Following the restart, Brookhaven lost the ball and theGreen Wave moved down the field scoring their second goal twominutes later when Jake Aubic was left alone in the box and headedanother ball past DiPaolo. Judson Langston put the Panthers on theboard on a fine shot from inside the penalty box that beat theGreen Wave’s goalkeeper, Thomas Ater.

At the start of the second half, the Green Wave immediately hadthe Panthers back on their heels. They pressed the attack andplayed most of the period in the Panthers’ half of the field. Thehead official allowed a controversial third goal for the GreenWave, which took the wind out of the Panthers sails. Following ashot by Cathedral’s Wyler Murray, DiPaolo tipped the ball over thecrossbar. The assistant referee signaled for a corner kick but thehead official claimed the ball went through a hole in the net. Thiscall was reminiscent of the Panthers’ controversial loss at the endof last season against West Jones when the head official overruleda call made by the assistant referee allowing a controversial goalthat eliminated the Panthers from the playoffs. While this call didnot end a season, it ended all hope of a Panther come back.

The Panthers next take the field against Wesson on Tuesday atthe Hansel King Sportsplex with the first game at 5:00 p.m.