Warren Central went into Friday’s game against Northwest Rankin as just another face in the crowd in a packed Region 2-6A race.

By the time it left, it might just have gotten everyone’s attention.

D.J. Knight and Jesse Wilson each ran for two touchdowns in the second half, and Warren Central’s defense pitched a shutout over the same span as the Vikings routed the Cougars 42-17.

Warren Central (4-1, 1-0 Region 2-6A) won its fourth consecutive game and beat Northwest Rankin (4-2, 0-1) for the fourth straight year.

“We played a really good football game. Our best game yet. The second half was our best half of the year, and it was a really complete team victory,” Warren Central coach Josh Morgan said. “We knew coming into the year that we were inexperienced. We’ve gotten better every week, and our off week was very big for us. You compile it all together and we’ve gotten better and better.”

Knight finished with three touchdowns. He broke off an 80-yarder on the first series of the game, then punched in a pair of short scoring runs as the Vikings pulled away in the second half.

Wilson, the Vikings’ junior quarterback, threw a 25-yard TD pass to Larry Ferguson in the first half. He capped off a nine-play, 80-yard drive to start the third quarter with a 3-yard touchdown run and added a 5-yarder later in the second half.

“We had a big drive to start the second half. We went down and scored and didn’t look back,” Morgan said.