By Hunter Cloud
The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — The 62nd installment of the “Holy War” was finished in the first quarter.

Cathedral took a three-touchdown lead early in the game and defeated St. Aloysius 46-8 on Friday night. Cam Tanner rushed for three touchdowns, and Tristan Fondren threw two TD passes for Cathedral (1-1).

St. Al (0-2) had a tough first half with the opening kickoff sequence taking three attempts. A face mask, offsides penalty and a fair catch inside the 4 left the Flashes with a long opening drive.

Cathedral’s Owen Jordan tackled a St. Al runner in the end zone for a safety to take an early lead. Cathedral then took the ensuing free kick and went down the field to score on a 15-yard run by Tanner with 10:02 left in the first quarter.

Three minutes later Fondren threw a 10-yard TD pass to Justin Hawkins to give Cathedral a 16-0 lead. A turnover on downs gave the ball right back to Cathedral and Tanner scored on a 28-yard rush.

St. Aloysius quarterback Carson Smith threw an interception on St. Al’s next possession, and 30 seconds later Tanner scored on a 6-yard run. Fondren also scored a rushing touchdown during the first-half blitz as Cathedral piled up a 38-0 lead.

Cathedral’s final TD came in the third quarter, when Grayson Gay caught a 15-yard pass.

“Everything that could have gone wrong in the first half did. It took us a while to get our feet back under us,” St. Al coach Bubba Nettles said. “When we finally did get our feet back I thought we competed well. I just have to do a better job of coaching and getting these guys ready to play.”

Thompson Fortenberry had one of a few bright points for the Flashes in the second quarter, with an interception to prevent a touchdown. Fortenberry also led his team down to the red zone and set up a 7-yard touchdown pass from Smith to Robert Lee.

Smith ran in the two-point conversion to make it 38-8 at halftime.

“Thompson is a wonderful teammate. He was nursing a groin injury coming into this game and we didn’t know until game time if he would play or not,” Nettles said. “He worked his butt off.”