NATCHEZ — The (1-0) Cathedral Green Wave threw for 139 yards against St. Aloysius in the first game of the season, and head coach Ron Rushing wants more in Week 2.

Rushing has focused on the passing game all week during practice, leading into a matchup against Madison St. Joseph Friday, in hopes of presenting a more explosive offense.

Traveling to play Madison St. Joseph, Cathedral enters the game as a favorite against the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 2A opponent, but Rushing remembers the Bruins giving Cathedral fits defensively in a 34-7 2014 Cathedral victory.

“Last year, they gave us some problems on the edge,” Rushing said. “We’re going to have to do things to get out on the edge and take advantage of the coverages that they play.”

Make no mistake about it — Rushing will still rely on senior running back Dee Fleming, who suffered a blow to the head and did not play in the second half against St. Aloysius because of precautionary reasons. Rushing will look to use his dynamic running back to help set up the passing game, with Connor Mire resuming his starter role.

“We want to establish Dee early, in all of our games, because he’s such a dynamic player,” Rushing said. “We look to work play-action off of him to open up some other things. We’ve built around him, but we’ve got J.J. Jenkins, Craig Bradley, Jardarius Anderson on the outside. We’ve got other guys to get the football to.”

Cathedral’s defense is coming off of a performance that held one of the fastest players in the state, DeMichael Harris, to 28 yards on 15 carries. The Green Wave will look to provide similar results when they defend against Madison’s Mason Fridge, who had 107 yards in a loss against Salem last week.

Kickoff for Cathedral and Madison St. Joseph will be at 7 p.m.