Cathedral offense still rolling in region win
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, September 17, 2003
NATCHEZ &045; Just when Cathedral head coach Ken Beesley thought there might be a dent in his new passing armor, the Green Wave air attack took off on a non-stop flight to victory land.
The Green Wave (2-0), behind the throttle of quarterback Turner Smith, who threw for 143 yards on 13 of 24 attempts and a balanced running game that picked up 183 yards on 25 carries, opened division 7-1A with a bang with a 36-13 win over Dexter.
&uot;I wanted to know how our passing game looked when it was a bad or rainy night, so this is actually all right,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;We had trouble at the beginning, but we finally settled down.&uot;
Garrett Jones got the party off on the right foot with a 60-yard punt return with 9:28 left in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead when John Paul Kenda made good on the extra point.
After Kenda made good on a 28-yard field goal to open the second quarter, Jones scored again, this time on a 25-yard touchdown catch from Smith.
Andrew Ellard added the next two scores on a 13-yard reception and a 2-yard plunge to make it 30-0 with 7:03 in the third.
&uot;It worked out good that we got to run the ball a little bit because we needed to work on that,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;That’s going to help us down the road. We’ll still spread it out, but we can run if we have to.&uot;
Dexter finally got on the board late in the third quarter when Nigel Fortenberry stomped in from 11 yards out, much to the chagrin of Cathedral’s first-team defense, which was already on the sideline for the night.
&uot;The first-team defense still has not been scored upon,&uot; Beesley said. &uot;They said, ‘Coach we want the shutout.’ But I told them, ‘We’re keeping up with it. It’s in the books.’&uot;