Cathedral knocks off St. Al

Published 1:35 am Saturday, August 23, 2014

Cathedral’s Dee Fleming ran over, around and clean through the St. Aloysius defense, averaging more than 10 yards a carry as the Green Wave extended its winning streak over its archrival with a 42-31 victory Friday night.

Fleming, a junior running back, racked up 183 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries for the Green Wave, which beat St. Al for the fifth consecutive time. As a team, Cathedral had 412 yards on the ground. Quarterback Wyatt Boothe rushed for 101 yards.

“They did a great job running the football,” St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said. “We could always get in striking distance. We just couldn’t catch them.”

St. Aloysius running back DeMichael Harris runs for a touchdown during Friday's season opener against Cathedral. (Paul Ingram/The Vicksburg Post)

St. Aloysius running back DeMichael Harris runs for a touchdown during Friday’s season opener against Cathedral. (Paul Ingram/The Vicksburg Post)

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Boothe also completed 4 of 7 passes, including two touchdowns to Jadarius Anderson.

“Wyatt is learning the system. We’re trying to game plan him up a little bit and move him around,” Green Wave coach Ron Rushing said.

St. Al has been unable to defeat Cathedral since 2009, but Rushing said this year’s win is one of the most important.

“It’s a bigger win than people realize. St. Al’s a great team and they have a chance to go all the way,” Rushing said.

DeMichael Harris led St. Al with 137 rushing yards and three touchdowns on just 12 carries. The Flashes gained 239 rushing yards as a team. Quarterback Connor Smith completed 6 of 14 passes for 73 yards.

“We had some bright spots, and DeMichael was one of them,” Smithhart said.

Cathedral took the lead less than two minutes into the game on a 14-yard pass from Boothe to Anderson. It never looked back and left St. Al chasing them the rest of the night.

The closest the Flashes came was on Casey Griffith’s field goal halfway through the first quarter that brought the score to 7-3.

St. Al got within five points twice, once on an 80-yard run by Smith with 5:40 left in the second quarter and again on a 60-yard touchdown run by Harris. Cathedral opened up a 28-9 lead late in the second quarter on a 49-yard TD pass from Boothe to Anderson.

St. Al got one touchdown back before halftime, and another early in the third quarter on Harris’ 60-yard run. Again, however, Cathedral was able to stay a step ahead. The Green Wave pushed the lead back to 19 points, 42-23, on an 8-yard run by Fleming and a 5-yard run by Anderson with 10:22 left in the game.

St. Al got one score back, a 45-yard run by Harris with 6:25 left, but couldn’t get any closer.