Playing without two starters and no substitutes, the Division 6-5A champion Natchez High Lady Bulldogs played with a lot of determination against a very good Franklin County team Saturday afternoon.

But two goals early in the second half by the visiting Lady Bulldogs allowed them to take a 3-0 lead as they held on for a 3-1 win to improve to 14-6 overall while the loss dropped Natchez High to 6-8 overall.

“I had just enough girls to play without subs. Two starters didn’t show up, so I had to move some key positions,” Natchez High head coach Lena Yarbrough said.

One of those two starters who didn’t show up for the game was starting sweeper McKenzie Taylor. So Yarbrough had to put in someone with some speed to play that position. That someone was first-string forward Ericka Singleton.

“Then I had to fill Ericka’s spot, so I put Kandice Chatman, who’s our second-string goalie, at forward,” Yarbrough said. “Those were two key moves I had to make”

Yet despite all the changes Natchez High had to make and Franklin County having more players ready to come in, the visiting Lady Bulldogs only led 1-0 at halftime before they pulled away in the second half.

Natchez High’s only goal in the game was from Jessica Evans about midway through the second half. And even though the Lady Bulldogs got wore down during the second half, Yarbrough was “incredibly pleased” with the effort.

“They played real well given the circumstances,” Yarbrough said. “They passed the ball so well. They communicated real well. It was an aggressive game and I was worried that someone would get hurt. The other team had lots of subs and they had some fresh legs.”

Franklin County boys 4, Natchez High 2

NATCHEZ — Just like the first game of the day, the visiting Bulldogs had a 1-0 halftime and then pulled away in the opening minutes of the second half to defeat the host Bulldogs.

Ryan Ratliff scored for Franklin County in the first half and then it got goals from No. 7, No. 18 and No. 10 for a 4-0 lead early on in the second half.

Ross Smith scored in the 17th minute of the second half and Jeremy Buckles added a goal in the 24th minute and Kent Calvitt had an assist on each goal for Natchez High (7-6), but it was not enough.

“The difference in the game was their goalkeeper,” Natchez High head coach Dennis Hogue said. “Not to take anything away from their team. They passed the ball well. But their goalkeeper was great. He could catch some shots that I didn’t think you could catch with a mitt.”

Buckles played at goalkeeper and had eight saves in the first half while Marcus Hargrave had six saves for Natchez High in the second half. Hogue also praised the play of sweeper Josh Smith, who made several key stops when it appeared that Franklin County had a chance to score even more.

Hogue noted that another key in Natchez High losing the game was that it was down a man, right wing Devin Carter, who was ejected at the 10th minute of the first half.

“They had a defender who would verbally abuse him. Devin got tired of it and he knocked the defender to the ground,” Hogue said. “He called Devin a name and Devin called him a name. It was a good call. Devin shouldn’t have said what he said. But as in all cases, some of this was going both ways.”

Hogue noted that other than that, the players on both teams were very friendly and cordial.

Natchez High, 5-0 in Division 6-5A, will wrap up division play Monday at Wingfield with the varsity boys’ game will start at 5:30 p.m.

Franklin County’s boys team has a huge game coming up this Thursday at Cathedral. If Franklin County wins or loses by just one goal, it will be the Division 7-1A/2A/3A champion. However, if Cathedral wins by two or more goals, it will be the division champion.