NATCHEZ — With temperatures approximately 40 degrees Friday night, Cathedral coach Ron Rushing was already cold enough.

And it didn’t help when his players dumped a cooler full of cold water on him with a minute left in the game against Salem Friday.

“I’m freezing. That was a shock,” Rushing said.

But since the bath was in celebration of Cathedral’s first regional title since 1997, he’ll take it. Despite a slow start in the game, Cathedral rode a strong second half to a 30-8 win against the Wildcats.

“I’m on cloud nine. This is a testament to these kids,” Rushing said. “They bought in, and first of all, you come in and everything’s perfectly in place.

“Craig Beesley and his dad (Ken Beesley) have do it right for so many years, so we got to go straight in concentrating on what we wanted to do. We started bringing some people in with our strength program and the kids worked extremely hard.”

Cathedral managed just 10 points in the first half. Brent Gaudé hit a field goal from 31 yards out with 7:03 left in the first quarter to put the Green Wave up 3-0.

In the second quarter, quarterback Caleb Upton hit Daniel Huffines on a critical 39-yard pass to get into Wildcat territory. Running back J.D. Ealey followed up with a 13-yard run to set up first and goal from the 2, and Ealey punched it in on the next play, putting Cathedral ahead 10-0 at the half.

“It was cold, and we really weren’t clicking early up through halftime,” Rushing said. “We went in and talked about it, and went to our short game.

The Green Wave scored another touchdown in the third on a 6-yard catch by Carl Hammitte, giving Cathedral a 17-0 lead heading into the fourth.

Tyler Flemming took over for Cathedral in the fourth quarter, scoring on a 10-yard pass from Upton. With Salem threatening to score, the Green Wave defense rushed Wildcat quarterback L.B. Bullock, and began to pull him down.

Bullock made an ill-advised attempt to throw the ball away as he was about to be sacked, lobbing the ball a few feet in the air. Fleming then caught the ball and ran it back 71 yards for a touchdown with 5:27 to go in the fourth.

“Our first series (in the second half) wasn’t really good, but after that we settled down and got some things rolling,” Rushing said.

Salem scored a touchdown against Cathedral’s backups with 1:22 left in the game on a 7-yard carry by David Carr.

Cathedral finished the regular season 9-2 overall, 6-1 in MHSAA Region 4-1A. It will take on Noxapater High School next Friday in the first round of the Class 1A South State playoffs.

“We got in the playoffs last year, and we got a little feel for what it is, so we’re a little experienced,” Rushing said.

“We want everybody to know that we’re for real. We finished No. 1 in the region because we earned it, and we want to go out and have a good showing.”