BROOKHAVEN — Cathedral head football coach Ron Rushing was pleased with what he saw from the Green Wave in its abbreviated spring games against host West Lincoln and Mt. Hermon (La.) Thursday night.

And while he was happy with the performance of the returning players on offense, he was even happier with how the defense stepped up in the two games.

Rushing decided not to implement his new defensive scheme, instead going with a base defense.

“On defense we looked at some new guys and were pleased with what we saw,” Rushing said. “We had James Allen Coley, Ty Brown and Jake Smilo on the defensive line. Rodney Hall, McArthur Doss, Dakota Vaughn, Peyton Jenkins and Daniel White played well at linebacker. Turner Janette played well on defense. We didn’t blitz any linebackers. We just kind of watched the ball.”

Rushing was able to get most of his players some playing time, so the starters could get some much-needed rest on the sidelines. He was also relieved that Cathedral got out of the spring games against the Bears and the Yellow Jackets injury-free.

As far as the offense was concerned, Rushing said, “The guys we had coming back played well. All the skilled players did well. Carl Hammitte scored a couple of touchdowns. Caleb Upton threw the ball well. Jadarius Ealey ran the ball well. I thought we did well.”

Each team ran 20 plays on offense and 20 plays on defense. Rushing added that no scores were kept during the games.

Even though Rushing said there was a lot that he liked, he noted that “we can improve everything. Everything can get better.”