NATCHEZ — Cathedral’s Maddie Kirkwood has been tallying hat tricks pretty regularly for the Lady Green Wave soccer team.

But she outdid herself Friday night against Loyd Star by tacking two extra goals on a trick in a 6-1 Lady Green Wave win Friday night.

“It’s definitely a personal best,” Kirkwood said. “Getting a hat trick is a pretty big deal, and I usually shoot for that. We wanted to beat them by five goals. It’s something we talked about at the half.

“It’s an amazing feeling. I’ve never even gotten four goals, so I was excited when I did that.”

Cathedral girls head coach David Gaudé said Kirkwood’s supporting cast did a great job enabling her to score as many goals as she did.

“There was a lot of good work by everyone else in helping her,” Gaudé said. “We were working hard to move up, and we made some changes to get the ball up a little better.

“We’ve been working on knockdowns all week, and tonight we had three goals on knockdowns.”

Kirkwood’s first goal came with approximately 21 minutes left in the first quarter. She added her second goal with 9:14 left in the half after Loyd Star’s keeper fell down trying to defend her kick. Kirkwood then knocked it in for an easy score.

Not even two minutes into the second half, teammate Martie Ellard scored on a head, the only goal for the Green Wave not scored by Kirkwood That drew a lot of praise from Gaudé after the game.

“I’m proud of her, because it’s hard for girls to do headers,” he said. “They just don’t like it.”

Loyd Star cut the lead 3-1 with approximately 13 minutes left in the game, but Kirkwood answered at the 9-minute mark with her third goal, securing the hat trick to make it 4-1 Cathedral.

With 3:30 left, Kirkwood scored her fourth goal. With less than two minutes to play, she capped off her night with her fifth.

“We were working on finishing in practice,” Kirkwood said. “The coaches had been on us about finishing all week.”

Gaudé said he preached to his players in practice the importance of making things happen with the ball in front of the goal.

“When it’s there, you have to make motion and do something instead of just watching it,” he said.

Cathedral rose to 7-2 on the season, 3-1 in regional play.

Cathedral boys 4,

Loyd Star 1

Austin Walker had a hat trick for the Green Wave, and Kyle Bradley added a goal as Cathedral improved to 9-2 on the year, 4-0 in regional play.

Noland Vaughn, Kyle Bradley and Brent Gaudé each had an assist for the Green Wave. Cathedral keeper Blake Martin had five saves.

“The kids are still playing well and coming together,” assistant coach Paul Burns said. “I think Loyd Star out-hustled us in first half and got to more balls. We got lucky on a couple of breakthrough goals in the first.

“In the second half, we settled down and kept the play more at their end. I think the two goals we had in the second half were better goals than first half. Overall, I was pleased with the effort.”

Cathedral will travel to Brookhaven today to play in a tournament.