NATCHEZ — The Natchez High School Bulldogs never let up Friday against the Jefferson County Tigers after leading 28-0 at the half in their 49-8 win Friday.

As they scored 21 more points in the second half, head coach Lance Reed said he wasn’t expecting such a high-octane offensive performance.

“I really wasn’t,” Reed said. “I was concerned more about defense, and they showed up and played fairy well. We actually just ran our scheme. We didn’t change very much. Our guys executed in a lot of spots.”

Quarterback Sidney Davis said he stressed to his teammates that it’s never too late for a team to catch some momentum, so they must play hard the entire 60 minutes.

“At any time, a team can come back and score as many points as we did in one half,” Davis said. “So we just had to keep focus and win this game.”

Running backs Kevantaye Caston and Tydarrius Terrell put up big numbers for the Bulldogs. Terrell tallied 76 rushing yards with two touchdowns, while Caston took over for Davis coming in to the third quarter and finished the game with a touchdown.

Caston said he didn’t know he would play the quarterback position against the Tigers.

“I was kind of nervous at first, but I feel more comfortable now,” Caston said.” I just wanted to give it my all every game.”

There could be a lot of competition between two players over a starting position, but Davis said he was more relieved that Caston did well at quarterback than anything.

“I was glad to have someone that can come in and give me a breather,” Davis said. “I just told him to keep his head together, and when its time, make the play.”

Other than the Bulldogs’ running game, Reed said his offensive line equally impressed him.

“They did a good job, and it opened up the holes for (our runners), and we needed them to do that,” he said.

Though the Bulldogs had a stellar performance Friday, Reed is far from satisfied as he warned them all to be at practice today despite the Labor Day holiday.

“We’re not complacent,” he said. “We have a lot of improvement to do, and we have a long season to go.”

Natchez High (1-1) returns to action against Ferriday High School, and Jefferson County (0-2) will return home against Port Gibson Friday.

Cathedral High School

The Green Wave were able to pull out a back-and-forth, 53-47 win against St. Joseph Catholic of Madison Friday, Head coach Ron Rushing said he was proud of how his team fought through a game it once led 21-0 before the Bruins tied it up in the second quarter.

“We didn’t play bad defensively, we just gave up big plays to allow them to get back in it,” Rushing said. “Even when it got back to 21-21, we came back and went ahead and did what we had to do.”

The big plays came largely in the passing game for Madison-St. Joe. In 12 pass receptions, the Bruins averaged approximately 23 yards per catch, and the Green Wave defensive backs allowed Bruin receivers to get behind them on several occasions.

“I don’t know (if it’s skills or loss of focus),” Rushing said. “We’ll go back and look at film of it. It might have been a little bit of both. We changed our coverages up a little bit in the second half and got some help up underneath.”

Two of the Bruins’ first three touchdowns were set up by Green Wave turnovers, and Rushing said his team would have to clean those up going forward.

“We’re not a team that can drop balls and make penalties and turn the ball over,” Rushing said. “We played well, but we have to take care of the ball.”

Cathedral (2-0) will play at Bogue Chitto High School Friday.