STARKVILLE — The St. Aloysius Flashes’ dream season came to a nightmarish end Friday in Starkville.
Wyatt Booth ran for four touchdowns and threw a touchdown pass, and Cathedral rolled up more than 300 rushing yards as it routed St. Al 49-14 in the MHSAA Class 1A championship game.
The lopsided loss brought a crushing end to the most successful football season at St. Al in 33 years. The Flashes won 13 games in a row to set a school record for victories in a season, and reached the state championship game for the first time since 1981. They also finished the season having won 17 of their last 20 games.
The only losses this season came against archrival Cathedral (14-1), which beat the Flashes 42-31 in the season opener and then again in the finale to win its first state championship.
“We’ve got a lot to build on, and these seniors left a good legacy. They took us places we’ve never been, for two years now, as juniors and seniors. I just hope these senior classes keep one-upping each other,” St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said.
Cathedral won its sixth in a row over St. Al, and evened the all-time series between the Catholic school rivals at 26 games apiece. None have been bigger, and few as impressive, as Friday’s resounding victory at Mississippi State’s Davis Wade Stadium.
Cathedral returned the opening kickoff 73 yards to the St. Aloysius 15-yard line and scored two plays later. After St. Al answered with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Connor Smith to Lane Hynum, Cathedral scored on four of its next five possessions to take a 35-7 lead at halftime.
Cathedral kept pouring it on in the second half as the clock ticked toward zero and a few thousand of the school’s green-and-black clad fans drowned out St. Al’s similarly-sized contingent.
“Just the fact that it was a rivalry game, I wouldn’t have wanted to play anybody else except for them. That made it that much sweeter,” Booth said.
And bittersweet for St. Al. Although they enjoyed the ride, not getting to finish it off with a victory was a tough pill to swallow.
“It’s bad. It’s bad. Because we’ve gone from the bottom to the top. We got kicked off the mountaintop, and it’s just not a good feeling,” St. Al senior center Bash Brown said.