Ferriday — The Ferriday High School football team battled the ups and downs of a roller-coaster game Friday night.

But the Trojans were able to end the contest with Lake Providence on a high note, with a 30-28 win in overtime in the District 2-2A matchup.

The Trojans scored the first touchdown of the game, but fell behind 16-14 at halftime. Lake Providence increased its lead to eight, before Ferriday managed to tie the game early in the fourth quarter with a 46-yard touchdown strike from Richard Jefferson to Adrian Wiggins. It was the third time in the game Jefferson and Wiggins connected for a score.

Ferriday then had its chance to win the game at the end of regulation, but a highly debated goal line call and poor clock management kept the Trojans out of the end zone.

After surrendering the first score in overtime, the Trojan defense stiffened and prevented the Panthers from scoring the two-point conversion. The Trojans proceeded to score on their first offensive play of overtime and won the game on a two-point conversion pass from Jefferson to DeRius Jolla.

“Our kids had a lot of chances to get down, but they kept coming back,” Ferriday coach Richard Oliver said.

The Trojans also had to overcome injury issues Friday night, Oliver said.

“We played a lot of ninth graders,” Oliver said.

One of those freshmeen was Wiggins, who finished the game with four catches for 133 yards and three touchdowns.

Wiggins was quiet about his huge performance, but did say he felt some responsibility for making some things happen for the Trojans’ offense.

“Big time players make big time plays,” he said.

The win put Ferriday into a four-way tie for first place in the district. Lake Providence, Ferriday, Homer and Sterlington are each 2-1 in the district.

Hattiesburg 19, Natchez 0

The Natchez High football team saw its playoff chances put into serious jeopardy Friday night, as the Bulldogs fell 19-0 to Hattiesburg.

The Bulldogs defense hung with the Tigers for much of the game, but they gave up a few big plays to allow Hattiesburg to build a lead.

“Our defense stopped the run, but we gave up big plays that hurt us,” Natchez coach Lance Reed said.

The loss dropped Natchez to 2-3 in Region 3-6A and also made the Bulldogs’ final two games vital for their playoff hopes.

Reed said his team will face must-win games against Brandon and Oak Grove to have a shot at postseason-play.

Reed said his young team is still improving, and it can learn from the loss to Hattiesburg.

“We have a couple of games to play,” he said. “There are always positives (in every game). We have young kids in there with a future opportunity to improve if we focus on getting better and keep working.”

Natchez (6-3, 2-3) will host Brandon (5-4, 3-2) Friday.

Dexter 36, Cathedral 34

The Cathedral football team’s perfect season came to an end Thursday night, as the Green Wave dropped a close game to Dexter 36-34.

It was the Cathedral defense that struggled to prevent Dexter from making big plays Thursday night.

“We tried to get to (Dexter quarterback Clifford Fernandez), and we rolled him out a couple of times, but they were just hitting the big play,” Cathedral coach Ron Rushing said. “We had good coverage, but they would out-jump us. It was just their kids stepping up and making plays.”

Cathedral gave up 585 yards of offense to Dexter in the game.

The Green Wave will try to rebound next week against Hinds AHS.