NATCHEZ — The Cathedral School football team put up yards and scored touchdowns at a record-breaking pace this past season.

The Green Wave’s high-powered offense led them to a 12-2 record and a berth in the South State championship game.

The Green Wave offense also garnered recognition for four standout seniors who were recently honored for their performances by making the MHSAA Class 1-A All-State teams.

Quarterback Caleb Upton, wide receiver Daniel Huffines and tight end Tyler Flemming were named first-team All-State, while offensive lineman Josh Calloway was named to the second team.

“It’s really good (to have that many players selected),” head coach Ron Rushing said. “I think we had the most on the first-team offensively. It’s really an individual award, but it speaks for the whole team.”

Rushing said the Cathedral offense finished first in the state in total yards, and he believes that the Green Wave’s ability to spread the ball around led to having so many players selected All-State. He said he would not have been surprised if more Green Wave players had been selected.

The leader of the Cathedral attack was quarterback Caleb Upton.

It was Upton’s ability to make the right decision on almost every play that allowed the offense to be effective, Rushing said.

“Caleb is obviously the guy that got us going,” Rushing said. “He got the ball to all our playmakers. He was real smart and real unselfish.”

Upton said he was glad to be recognized as the state’s top quarterback in Class 1-A.

“I’m just honored to be part of such a select group,” he said.

Upton said the Cathedral offense set the bar high for future teams to surpass.

“It will probably take a pretty good effort to beat some of the things we did,” he said.

Upton threw for more than 4,000 yards and 53 touchdowns, and he said that the unique aspect of the offense was that, although it had an impressive passing game, it was still able to produce a 1,000-yard rusher in Jadarius Ealey.

Huffines was one of Upton’s main targets this season. Huffines accumulated more than 1,200 yards receiving en route to All-State honors.

“It’s a great honor to be recognized like that,” Huffines said. “And it’s better to have my teammates on there with me.”

Huffines said he enjoyed being in an offense with so many weapons, even if it meant the ball was spread around more.

“I was a real fun team to be a part of,” he said. “Even when I didn’t have the ball in my hands, I got to watch my best friends (make plays).”

Flemming provided a versatile tight end for Upton to target in a variety of situations, and he racked up 800 yards receiving and 10 receiving touchdowns on the season.

“Tyler did a good job catching the ball over the middle and was able to get a lot of yards after the catch, and being a tight end that’s not something you see a lot of,” Rushing said. “He has great hands and is real strong.”

Flemming said he enjoyed being a part of the Green Wave offense.

“It was the best offense I’ve been a part of, and I’ve been playing since the third grade” he said. “We could score whenever we wanted to, and I had trust in the line, and trust in Caleb and trust in coach to call the right plays.”

Flemming said his long-lasting memory from this season would be the team’s fourth quarter comeback win against Stringer High School.

Calloway was the one paving the way for the Cathedral rushing attack and protecting Upton when he dropped back to pass, and his ability to do so garnered him a spot on the Second-Team All-State team.

“I was proud of myself and happy I made it,” Calloway said. “I worked hard this summer and worked hard throughout the year.”

Calloway said he enjoyed being part of such a successful offense, and although the season did not end the way the team wanted, he said the success the Green Wave had would be remembered.

“We lost out at South State, and everybody was sad, but if we sit back and think about what we accomplished as a team and a unit it was surprising. Calloway said.

Calloway also managed to find the end zone once this season when he recovered a fumble for a score against Resurrection.

“That was big, I’ll always remember that,” he said.

Rushing said replacing the four All-State players, along with the other departing seniors, would be a tough task next season.

“It’s going to be hard to replace the numbers they put up, but we have a slew of underclassmen that can come up and produce,” he said.