BROOKHAVEN — Cathedral was faster, stronger and simply scored more points than Brookhaven Academy in a 44-14 win in a MAIS 6A district game. A running clock helped the second half go by quickly as Cathedral improved to 2-3 and BA fell to 0-5.

Senior Tris McCoy opened the game for the Green Wave with an interception on defense. His defensive play set up a 40 yard touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Tristan Fondren. After forcing a punt, Cathedral marched to the goal line where Fondren punched in a touchdown on a quarterback sneak to take a 14-0 lead. 

Junior running back Fred Lane scored next for the Green Wave on a 30 yard rushing touchdown. With 11:17 in the second quarter Cathedral led 20-0. McCoy set up another scoring drive with his second interception in the second quarter. He has really stepped up in his senior year. 

“It feels good to be playing well. I didn’t play much my freshman and sophomore year. Now I’m a senior I’m happy to play. We were enthusiastic tonight and we came ready to play and didn’t let up,” McCoy said. “With this being my senior year I’m just happy if we keep winning and having fun. When we have a strong start like tonight, we can get on the other team and not let up. They can’t compete when we do that.” 

Senior Justin Hawkins then scored on a 38 yard touchdown rush up the middle of the field. After a BA punt, Fondren found Hawkins on a 13 yard slant to give Cathedral a 36-0 lead with 7:55 in the second quarter. 

Brookhaven Academy responded by driving about 80 yards down the field before they were stopped at the five yard line. Cathedral made a goal line stand to force the turnover on downs. Cam Tanner sprung loose on a rush up the middle to go 95 yards for the score and put Cathedral up 44-0 with 3:28 in the second quarter. 

“The goal line stand was a big play for us,” McCoy said. “We have been working on this game all week. We just came in tonight and got what we deserved.” 

Walt Smith finally broke the scoring drought for Brookhaven Academy on a five yard touchdown rush for the Cougars late in the second quarter. Cathedral led 44-7 at halftime. 

It looked like Cathedral might make another scoring drive in the second half as they marched down the field. Braden Revere stepped up by intercepting a pass thrown deep down the right side of the field for Brookhaven Academy. 

He turned and started looking around and let his blockers do the work as he looked to make a long return. The interception helped the Cougars march down the field to the goaline. Revere was able to punch into the endzone on fourth down from the two-yard line to cut the deficit to 30. BA would score the final touchdown of the game with 7:40 in the fourth quarter. 

“It was exciting. I saw the ball dome up and I said I had to go get it. I tried to get what I could on the return and set us up for a good situation,” Revere said. “It felt good to get a little momentum going there. We played much better in the second half. We have to take this game and learn from it. We hope to execute next week against Salem and put points on the board and get a win.” 

Revere said the season has been tough but they have to keep working hard. Cathedral was quick and strong which showed in the running game the most. Revere said the Green Wave were pretty good at attacking deep down the field in the passing game as well. 

“We could have been better tonight in our coverage, myself included,” Revere said. “We should have better against the run game too.”