RAYMOND — Central Hinds is well into its fourth year as the supreme soccer power in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools’ Class AAA boys division. That hasn’t changed — yet — but St. Aloysius served notice on Wednesday that it’s coming for the crown.

St. Al tangled with the three-time defending Class AAA champs for the first time and left with a wild 5-4 loss. The Flashes twice bounced back from what could have been early knockout punches, went toe-to-toe with the Cougars, and earned a measure of both confidence for themselves and respect from the opponent they’ll have to go through to win a state championship.

“They know they’re the state champions. But they also know that they’re in our league. Every one of them came to me after the game and said we are going to take them out when they come to us,” St. Al coach Scott Mathis said, referring to his own players’ reaction following the loss. “I’ve never heard them say that. So they have it in there. We’re playing (Jackson Academy), we’re playing Lamar this weekend. We’re not just playing our district games. We’re going to be well prepared when they come back.”

Central Hinds (8-0, 6-0 District 3-AAA) won its 52nd consecutive game. It will travel to Vicksburg to face St. Al again on Jan. 30, and the two teams could have a third meeting in the Class AAA semifinals in late February.

“They pushed us well. They’re a good team. They moved the ball well and they’ve got some good players. We’re glad to have them in our district,” said Central Hinds forward Gunar Robinson, who scored one goal Wednesday. “We plan on playing them two more times, that’s for sure. They’re a good team. They should make it through, and we should make it through. We’re looking forward to it. It’s fun. It’s good to have a little pushing from somebody.”

Tanner Leggett scored four goals, all in the first half, for Central Hinds. His first came 70 seconds into the game on a breakaway, and he added two others in a 30-second span late in the first half to give the Cougars a 4-2 lead.

Each time, St. Al (9-3, 5-1) refused to back down and battled back.

After Leggett’s first goal, the Flashes got goals by Jorrit Willemsen in the seventh minute and Gradon Bourne in the 13th to take the lead.

Leggett also scored in the 27th minute, and Central Hinds never trailed after his two quick goals a few minutes later. The Flashes, however, controlled the game for most of the second half.

Willemsen was fouled in the box and converted a penalty kick in the 60th minute to cut it to 4-3, and completed a hat trick in the 77th minute off an assist from Brandon Teller. In between those goals came the sequence that turned out to be the difference in the game.

Willemsen was hit hard near the top of the goal box in the 65th minute, but did not get a call from the officials. Central Hinds counterattacked, and on the other end Leggett did draw a foul in the penalty area. Robinson took the penalty kick and scored to give the Cougars a 5-3 lead.

Willemsen’s third goal got the Flashes close again, and they nearly tied it on the final sequence of the game. Justin Ehrgott sent a corner kick across the goal box and Bourne was able to redirect it toward the net with a header. It went about two feet wide of the goal, and the whistle blew as soon as the ball sailed out of bounds.

It was the last of a half-dozen near-misses for the Flashes over the course of the game.

Bourne hit the cross bar with a free kick in the 36th minute. Early in the second half the Flashes had an odd-man rush where Central Hinds keeper Brett Skinner was caught out of position, but they lost control of the ball before getting a shot off. Several other quality scoring chances ended with shots that were a bit high or wide.

“The last 15 minutes of the first half, we just didn’t play our game. We were just kicking the ball around and they scored two goals in about a minute,” Bourne said. “And that’s all they really did. After that, we played really good with them. We just have to finish our shots. We had a bunch of opportunities and didn’t do it.”