NATCHEZ — Cathedral’s fearsome foursome are far more than athleticism and long bodies.

While defensive ends Quinton Logan and Will Wallace have a weekly race to the quarterback, defensive tackles Robert Hargrave and Jacob Pahnka play their own little game of RedRover, daring opponents to send a running back “right over.”

And while their dominance may suggest physical superiority, Cathedral’s line coach Kurt Russ credited their ability to learn technique and reflect what’s being taught as the gateway to their dominance on the field.

“That front four might be the smartest we’ve had in a long time,” Russ said. “We work a lot on grabbing and shoving in the hole, squeezing down, those type of things, and these kids get that. They’re athletic too. They’re not just big guys.”

Cathedral head coach Ron Rushing echoed Russ’ statements, pointing out the stature of three of the four starting defensive linemen, all hovering around 6-feet.

“A lot of people think about defensive line and think about slow, big guys, but these guys are athletic,” Rushing said. “They’re quick off of the ball.”

The one exception to the height rule is Hargrave, who is a 5-foot-7 bowling ball that treats offensive linemen like pins on Friday nights. Both Rushing and Russ said he’s one of the best linemen they’ve ever coached, and if the sophomore was taller than he was, every college coach around would be sending him offers. Hargrave isn’t worrying about that right now, though, all he wants to do is dominate the middle, which he has for most of the season.

“That’s why I like defense better,” said Hargrave, who had his best game against an Oak Forest team that was physically the bigger team, wreaking havoc in the backfield throughout the game. “I like it because on defense, you hit them, rather than them hitting you.”

Because Rushing doesn’t post stats, none of the players have any idea as to how many sacks or tackles they’ve made, but they don’t need a number to tell them how dominant they’ve been.

“That’s what a lot of people were worried about last year,” Wallace said. “We just want to win games. We want to dominate on the field.”

Hargrave, along with Logan and Wallace, play on both sides of the ball. Wallace and Logan said they’ve gotten used to playing both ways, and Logan, who transferred over from Trinity last season, said it’s something he’s had to get used to for most of his high school career.

“Coming from Trinity, you’re used to going both ways,” Logan said.

While Logan transitioned to a new defensive system at Cathedral, Pahnka had to transition to a new position. Going from defensive end to defensive tackle proved to be a tall order for Pahnka, but the coaching staff said he’s done a great job switching over. Now, Pahnka said he and Hargrave feed off of each other in the middle, opening the door for a creative nickname to describe the unit. Unfortunately for Pahnka, the offensive line snatched the catchy title “The Moving Company,” leaving his defensive line nameless.

“If we’re going to have the moving company, you would think we need to have a name saying people can’t move against us,” Pahnka said.

Though Wallace and Logan have become recognized for their sacks on third-and-long situations all season long, Russ said it was one game in particular, where his defensive ends didn’t allow the opposing team to run the ball to the outside, that solidified in his mind just how special this unit was.

“On the ends, there were several games where we shut the run down,” Russ said. “One game, they couldn’t get wide on us, so they had to throw the football. That’s invaluable.”

The old football cliché — the game is won in the trenches — is something Rushing and Russ believe in. So in their mind, stats or no stats, a 9-1 Green Wave record says all that needs to be said about how good their defensive line has been in 2014.