[12/16/01]St. Aloysius ended the first half of its season on a high note Saturday, dominating archrival Natchez Cathedral and claiming a 6-0 win.

John Theobald had three goals and an assist, Michael Strickland had two assists, and Seth Daugherty and Patrick Sadler each had a goal and an assist as St. Al (8-2) outshot Cathedral 23-8.

Backup goalies Steven Rottman and Brett Bailess, filling in for injured starter Andy Gough, combined on the shutout.

“I saw more total team play out there today than I saw in a long time,” St. Al coach Shirley Agostinelli said. “Our defense just shut them down. We dominated and controlled the ballgame.”

The Flashes took control early. Beau Theobald tipped up a throw-in from Daughtery about five minutes into the game, and John Theobald knocked it in to give St. Al a 1-0 lead.

The score stayed the same for about 15 minutes, but St. Al put it away with three goals in the final 20 minutes of the first half.

John Theobald scored his second goal with about 19 minutes left in the half, then Beau Theobald took a pass, dribbled around a defender and put a left-footed shot into the lower left corner of the net to make it 3-0 with 14 minutes to play. Daughtery headed in a throw-in from Strickland with about five minutes to play to finish the onslaught.

“Last time we had a lot of shots and none of them went in,” John Theobald said, referring to a Dec. 1 meeting between the teams in which St. Al had 54 shots but won only 4-1. “A lot of them fell in for us this time.”

John Theobald finished his hat trick midway through the second half, knocking in a cross from Sadler.

He returned the favor just two minutes later, setting up Sadler with a cross that Sadler headed in to make it 6-0.

Cathedral (4-2) had several shots in the final 10 minutes, but never really came close to scoring. The defensive tandem of Michael Head and Vincent Banchetti ran down nearly every deep ball by the Green Wave and Cathedral struggled to push the ball up the field.

Head, normally a striker, was filling in at sweeper for Blake Warnock, who was attending a baseball camp out of town.

“I had to make some adjustments, and the adjustments paid off,” Agostinelli said. “This was a good, relaxing win. We’re going to take off for the holidays and hope this is a healing period for our players.”

Cathedral coach Rocky Kettering, meanwhile, said it was a tough day for his players. Julia McNeely, a 2000 graduate of Cathedral and daughter of a current teacher, was killed in a car wreck last week. Kettering said most of his players weren’t thinking about soccer.

“It’s kind of affected a lot of the kids,” Kettering said.