MEADVILLE — The Cathedral Green Wave continued their dominance over Franklin County in region play on Friday night.

The Green Wave used a smothering defense and a second-half goal from eighth grader Austin Walker to defeat the Bulldogs and move to 6-3-1 overall and 2-0 in Region 7-1A/2A/3A play.

Franklin County did defeat Cathedral in a tournament earlier this year, but that game did not count in the region standings. The Bulldogs haven’t defeated Cathedral in region play since 2006.

“It was a very physical game, hard-fought from the get go,” Cathedral coach Rick Simons said. “We controlled the middle of the field the whole game and that’s what beat them.”

Simons credited the defensive play of seniors Chris Griffiths, Harrison Burns and Julian Stubbs as well as the good work of goalkeeper Aaron Sandifer in Cathedral’s win.

The game was scoreless until about 25 minutes into the second half, when Walker scored his sixth goal of the season.

“He told me that was my Christmas present,” Simons said. “That was a great present, especially going into the (holiday) break.”

Cathedral takes a long break over the holidays and will next play again on Jan. 5, when they travel to face North Pike.

McComb vs. Natchez High

NATCHEZ — Even though McComb shut out Natchez High in both varsity games as well as the junior varsity game Friday night at Tom F. Williams Memorial Stadium, the story of the day was the play of goalkeeper Caylin Tucker.

After playing in the JV and varsity girls games, Natchez High coach Dennis Hogue asked Tucker if she would stay for the varsity boys’ game.

“Our goalkeeper, George Bates, hurt his shoulder and is out for a couple of weeks. Our backup goalkeeper, Toddrick Mason, is out with a death in the family and he had to go to Texas. We had to put Caylin in all three games.”

Hogue started Dylan Coles at goalkeeper, but McComb scored two goals in the first 10 minutes. And at that point, he put Coles back on the field and Tucker at goalkeeper.

“(Coles) is better in the field than in the goal. I put her in and she shut the other team out (the rest of the first half),” Hogue said. “They only scored a couple of goals on her in the second half. She did a heck of a job. She’s a good goalkeeper.”

McComb’s JV team won 1-0 while the varsity girls won 3-0 and the varsity boys won 4-0.

The Lady Bulldogs fell to 0-6 overall and the Bulldogs dropped to 1-4-1.