NATCHEZ — Cathedral High School has two players on the national radar after the Green Wave offense put up big numbers the last couple of weeks.

Senior quarterback Thomas Garrity and sophomore receiver Jardarius Anderson are both in the top 10 of stats leaders in their respective categories on the website MaxPreps.com. MaxPreps is a national high school sports network.

Garrity is ranked No. 3 in passing with 1,093 total yards (364.3 yards per game), and Anderson is listed at No. 8 in passing with 475 total yards (158.3 yards per game). The Green Wave have played three games on the season.

“Stats are stats,” Cathedral head coach Ron Rushing said. “They don’t win or lose games, and here we stress ‘team,’ but when you have a quarterback and wide receiver ranked nationally, it’s fun for them. They’ve worked hard.”

With such gaudy passing numbers, Garrity was quick to credit his offensive line for allowing him time to throw.

“I have three to four seniors at times on the line, and they know how important it is for us to get the ball in the hands of our receivers,” Garrity said. “They work hard, and they don’t let anyone through.”

Garrity said it was surreal to be nationally ranked, but he said only 25 percent of it is himself.

“Seventy-five percent is my receivers and blockers up front,” Garrity said.

In Anderson’s case, Garrity said the sophomore standout’s athleticism allows him to make catches other players might not be able to make.

“He’s young, but special,” Garrity said. “He has strong legs and hands, and he’ll catch it even if I make a bad pass.”

Anderson said it felt good to receive national attention, especially since he’s not even an upperclassmen.

“I wasn’t looking forward to it, but when I found out, I was happy,” Anderson said.

Running an explosive offense with a good quarterback allows him the opportunity to make big plays each game, Anderson said.

“Coach Ron making the right reads and plays, and Thomas’ reading the defense well (allow me to excel),” Anderson said. “I just try to catch everything he throws, no matter where it’s at.”

Cathedral (2-1) will play at Hinds Agricultural High School of Utica Friday, and Rushing said the Bulldogs (2-1) return a lot of starters from a squad that went 6-5 last year.

“They’re physical and fast,” Rushing said. “You sort of know where they’re going (on offense), the problem is stopping them. We’ll have to play as good as we’ve played any week. They run like 90 percent of the time, so we have to stop the run and make them put it in the air.”

The Green Wave will also have to cut down on turnovers after yielding the ball five times via interceptions in last week’s loss to Bogue Chitto.

“We need to get back to playing sound football and cut down on the turnovers,” Rushing said.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday night at Hinds AHS.