NATCHEZ — Natchez High School’s defensive gameplan centered around stopping Cathedral High School’s Kyle Bradley Saturday morning.

As the Bulldogs hosted the Green Wave for an area soccer match, NHS head coach Dai Vu said he wanted someone keeping tabs on Bradley at all times.

Yet, Bradley still came one goal short of a hat trick as the Green Wave blanked NHS 4-0.

“We tried to keep their best player (from doing much),” Vu said. “We had one guy follow him everywhere.”

Bradley scored the first two goals of the match, one early in the game and one with 14:15 left in the first half. Cathedral kept the ball on the Bulldogs’ side of the field predominantly in the first half, and NHS didn’t have many scoring opportunities save for one breakaway.

The Green Wave’s Thomas Garrity added a goal with approximately two minutes left in the first half to give Cathedral a 3-0 lead at intermission.

Only one goal was scored in the second half, courtesy of Nick Webb at the 11:40 mark after his older brother Colton Webb helped with the assist.

NHS had more scoring opportunities in the second half, penetrating Cathedral’s defense several times, but the Bulldogs were unable to put it in the net. The closest they came was several minutes into the second half when a shot by John Givens bounced off the left edge of the goal.

“So far, we’ve gotten no goals in the net, but we will,” Vu said.

Green Wave keeper R.D. Hall got the shutout. Cathedral head coach Dennis Hogue called his team’s win sloppy, especially in the second half.

“We expected a lot of hustle out of Natchez High, that’s always been their thing,” Hogue said. “They have four to five skill players, and the rest are learning. I will say, last night we had a tough game against district opponent Wesson, so that probably played into the sloppiness a little bit.”

Hogue said his team played selfish at times, often trying to take the ball and run with it instead of passing and opening up lanes to set up scoring plays.

“We talked about it when we were ahead 3-0 at the half, that we could do more if we’d play less greedy, but they didn’t (stop),” Hogue said.

Despite the loss, Vu said his team is showing improvement over the course of each game.

“The offensive is learning,” Vu said. “We’ve had five guys who have never played soccer before, so they’re doing the best they can. We just want to help the guys play well and have them understand the game — that’s the most important thing.”

Cathedral girls 5, NHS 0

Kaitlin Lofton had two goals for Cathedral as the Lady Green Wave shut out the Lady Bulldogs.

Marty Ellard, Maddy Christian and Taylor White each had one goal for Cathedral. Keeper Kaylee Sanders had the shutout.