TYLERTOWN — Cathedral wanted to take care of business Friday night to advance to the playoffs for the first time in three years.

But the Green Wave didn’t just take care of things, they steam rolled their way into the Class 1A South State Playoffs.

Cathedral used a 23-point second quarter to walk into the playoffs with a 36-8 win over Salem.

A win gives the Green Wave the No. 3 seed out of Region 4-1A and a first-round Class 1A South State Playoff game at Weir next Friday at 7 p.m. A loss would have meant their postseason chances would have ridden on the outcome of the game between arch-rival St. Aloysius and region champion Sebastopol.

“We’re glad to be back into the playoffs. We did a good job in the second quarter,” Cathedral head coach Craig Beesley said. “We played a good game. We got to play a lot of kids in the second half.”

A 56-yard touchdown pass from Dylan White to Daniel Huffines gave Cathedral (4-6, 4-3) a 6-0 lead early in the first quarter. Then came the second quarter.

The defense recorded a safety thanks to a penalty on Salem in the end zone just 24 seconds into the quarter. Then with 8:58 to go, JaDarius Ealey scored on a 12-yard run. Hunter Foster added a 12-yard touchdown run of his own with 3:26 left. Then Cole Mann, who has been known for his kicking game, scored on a 31-yard run with 32 seconds left until halftime. He made all three extra points in the quarter as the Green Wave took a 29-0 halftime lead.

“He did a good job,” Beesley said of Mann’s touchdown run. “We were able to establish the run early.”

Salem (2-8, 1-6) got its only points in the third quarter when Justin Lewis scored on a 16-yard run and Trey Pezant connected with Christian Gilmore on a 2-point conversion pass midway through the third quarter.

That was the only highlight for the Wildcats, who had just six first downs, 143 yards of total offense and turned the ball over three times.

Beesley added that he was, for the most part, pleased with the effort from the defense.

“They played real well tonight. Salem had a couple of big plays or else we would have held them under 100 yards,” he said.

Caleb Upton threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to Aaron White a mere 11 seconds into the fourth quarter. Dylan White and Upton combined to complete 5 of 11 passes for 141 yards while Ealey led the Green Wave’s rushing attack with 13 carries for 98 yards and Mann had four carries for 55 yards. Huffines had three catches for 75 yards to go with six carries for 37 yards.