LUMBERTON — After Thomas Garrity threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to R.J. Givens with 2:57 left in the ball game and trailing by 1 point, Cathedral head coach Ron Rushing decided to go for 2 points and the win on the road.

Unfortunately, the pass attempt on the conversion was no good, and Cathedral lost to the Lumberton Panthers 20-19 Friday night in a key MHSAA Division 4-1A game for both teams.

Credit Lumberton’s defense for slowing down Cathedral’s high-powered offense. The Panthers held the Green Wave to just 9 first downs, 284 yards of total offense and forced three turnovers.

Javier Chavis picked off a Garrity pass and returned it 60 yards for a touchdown, and Jatarrian Clark ran in for the two-point conversion just 1:08 into the ball game. Garrity would not be deterred by the miscue as he connected with Givens on a 43-yard touchdown pass with 9:14 to go in the opening quarter, and Nic Webb added the extra point.

Cathedral’s only lead of the game occurred at the 5:42 mark of the second quarter when Garrity hooked up with Jardarius Anderson on a 10-yard touchdown pass for a 13-8 lead.

However, Clark took over for Lumberton in the fourth quarter as he scored on touchdown runs of 16 and 6 yards that gave the Panthers a 20-12 lead.

Garrity completed 17 of 37 passes for 234 yards, but he was intercepted twice. Anderson had seven catches for 91 yards, Ishmael Blackmon had five receptions for 89 yards and Givens had four catches for 59 yards. Christian Jenkins was the Green Wave’s leading rusher, as he ended up with 31 yards on seven carries.

Lumberton was led by Clark, who had 22 carries for 127 yards. Zach Marsh had 59 yards rushing on 15 carries. The Panthers won the game despite having fewer total yards than the Green Wave (239 to Cathedral’s 284) and being penalized 14 times for 100 yards.

Cathedral (5-2, 3-2) plays host to Sacred Heart next Friday at 7 p.m.