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NATCHEZ — Cathedral High School’s varsity football team had more than its fair share of chances to put points on the scoreboard against defending MAIS Class 5A state champion and District 3-5A foe Oak Forest Academy last Friday night.

But every time the Green Wave would get in the red zone in the first quarter alone, quarterback Tristan Fondren was picked off three times and that proved to be costly as they fell to the Yellow Jackets 40-8 at Cathedral’s Armed Forces Game at D’Evereux Stadium.

“I thought we came out and we had our opportunities. We did not capitalize on them,” Cathedral head coach Josh Loy said. “We made crucial mistakes. We’ve got to quit making them because we’ve been making them for four weeks.”

Oak Forest Academy (3-1, 2-0) more than obliged. On their first scoring drive, the Yellow Jackets went for it on fourth-and-four and Stiles Guidry finished off the drive with a 40-yard run and Will Fortenberry’s extra point made it 7-0 at the 7:52 mark of the first quarter.

Then Kaul Perkins hit Leonard Brumfield Jr. on a 76-yard touchdown pass with 4:45 to go in the opening quarter for a 13-0 lead.

Guidry scored on an 18-yard run with 8:23 to go in the second quarter to give Oak Forest a 19-0 lead. Tanner Spears scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 10-yard run with 2:45 left until halftime for a 25-0 Yellow Jackets lead. Perkins finished off a dominant first half for the visitors from Amite, La. with a 66-yard TD pass to Brumfield Jr. to go into halftime up 32-0.

“We’ve got to keep working hard because we’ve got some tough opponents coming up. We’ve got to perform better than this,” Loy said.

Cathedral’s Cam Tanner finished off a 65-yard drive to start the second half with a 10-yard touchdown run, but the try for two was no good and the Green Wave trailed 32-6. It didn’t take long for Oak Forest to respond as Spears ran in from 34 yards out for a 39-6 lead.

Perkins scored on a one-yard run for a 46-6 lead at the 2:32 mark of the third quarter, which invoked a running clock for the rest of the game. Fondren found Grayson Gay on a 52-yard TD pass about midway through the fourth quarter and Fondren connected with Matt Kaiser on the two-point conversion pass.

“There’s always positives to take from each game. I thought we ran the ball well. Fred Lane ran the ball well. The offensive line did a good job blocking up front. We played well in spurts,” Loy said.

Cathedral (1-3, 0-1) next plays at Brookhaven Academy in a key district match-up for both teams at 7 p.m. next Friday.