In Friday’s 35-3 loss to Greenville-St. Joe, the St. Aloysius defense did a great job of limiting a potent Fighting Irish passing attack in the early going.

The Flashes played the Irish to a 0-0 stalemate after one quarter and momentum appeared to be on the side of the home team with heavy rain pouring down.

Vicksburg native and St. Joe coach John Baker went to the drawing board on the sideline, moving 6-foot-3, 240-pound quarterback Raines Rester to tight end and putting his offense in a power-I formation with three running backs behind backup quarterback Kodie Jenkins. Running behind a senior-laden offensive line, the Irish racked up 372 yards on 45 carries and the St. Al defense could do little to stop it.

“Kodie Jenkins did a great job for us tonight and he’s never played quarterback in a high school game,” Baker said. “I told him ‘don’t hurt us. Just give us good, clean handoffs and and let our line do the rest,’ because they wanted it. They were hungry.”

Irish tailback Terry Bailey finished with 194 yards and two touchdowns, while backfield mate J’daylan Jackson also eclipsed the century mark with 112 yards on nine carries and two more touchdowns.

For those keeping score at home, that’s a gaudy 8.3 yards per carry. It was the second straight week the Flashes’ front seven were neutralized by an offensive front and gashed badly. In the opener, a 41-7 loss to Madison-St. Joe, the Flashes surrendered 403 rushing yards and 10.3 yards per carry.

“We’ve got to keep pushing hard and getting a fight up on the D-line,” St. Al linebacker and running back Elliott Bexley said. “We’ve just got to keep working.”

Speaking of work, the St. Al offense is another job in progress going into Friday’s Region 4-1A opener with Hinds AHS at Balzli Field. The Flashes have scored 10 points in two games.

The Flashes put together a great opening drive with Bexley taking the bell cow role as the primary tailback, but a costly interception by Connor Smith ended the threat and St. Al’s only foray into the red zone.

The next trip into the red zone was in the waning seconds of the fourth quarter with the game no longer in doubt.

Bexley rushed for 62 yards in the first half and 109 overall.

Smith completed 5 of 16 passes for 46 yards with two interceptions.

Bexley believes that the Flashes need to do a better job of handling adversity.

“In high school football, especially at the (Class) 1A level, you’re going to have crazy things happen,” Bexley said. “You can’t get your heads down.”