NATCHEZ — It didn’t take long for a fresh start to turn sour for St. Aloysius.

Two fumbles and a series of other miscues led to four first-quarter touchdowns for Adams County Christian School, and the defending MAIS Class 5A champions cruised to a 41-14 victory over the Flashes in their season opener Friday.

“I told them they can’t quit and they didn’t quit. But I told them, at the same time, they’re not a bad football team. They just hurt themselves,” first-year St. Al coach Walker Mosby said. “Whenever they stop playing undisciplined football and start playing disciplined football and not hurt ourselves, things can get better. We can’t turn the football over and have dumb penalties.”

Adrian Walker rushed for 38 yards and two touchdowns for ACCS, and Coleman Carter was 7-for-12 passing for 168 yards and two long touchdown passes.

Carson Smith and Thompson Fortenberry scored rushing touchdowns for St. Al. Fortenberry also had eight tackles and a sack on defense.

Sadler Lambiotte led the Flashes with 52 rushing yards. Evan Mallard had seven tackles. Marques Flowers and Jaden Wheeldon each had a sack.

ACCS took the opening kickoff and finished a five-minute drive — kept alive by two third-down penalties — with Walker’s 3-yard touchdown run. After that, it took advantage of St. Al’s steady stream of mistakes to quickly blow the game open.

A high snap that resulted in an 11-yard loss short-circuited a promising opening drive for the Flashes that had moved into ACCS territory. ACCS scored on a 60-yard pass from Carter to Cedric Owens on its next series.

On St. Al’s second drive, Beau Brogdon dropped to a knee to field a low punt snap and was ruled down at the 9-yard line. Sean Kerry Cothern took it into the end zone on the next play to put the Rebels ahead 21-0.

Another high snap and a fumble on a kickoff led to two more ACCS touchdowns, and the Rebels led 34-0 a minute into the second quarter. ACCS scored four touchdowns in a span of four minutes.

Carter threw a 42-yard touchdown pass to Colton Rabb with 5:16 left in the second quarter to make it 41-0 at halftime.

“You keep moving on. It’s hard, but that stuff happens,” Mosby said of dealing with the costly mistakes. “You turn the football over and get dumb penalties and things like that will happen to you. You’re going to hand them touchdowns like that. But the guys kept fighting. We just have to be more disciplined and we can be a better football team.”

St. Al got on the board in the fourth quarter. A 37-yard pass from Smith to Brogdon took the ball to the 1-yard line, and Smith ran it in on the next play.

Fortenberry broke a 38-yard touchdown run on the game’s final play to bring it to the 41-14 final. John Ellis Montgomery kicked two PATs.

St. Al lost its season opener for the 17th time in 18 years, and dropped its 20th consecutive game overall. It has not won since the 2022 opener.

The Flashes will try to break the long streak when they host Cathedral in their home opener next Friday.

“We hurt ourselves tonight. I think it was 35, 40 yards worth of penalties,” Mosby said. “But the kids didn’t stop fighting, the attitudes were positive, and that’s all I can ask for.”