Heading into his fourth season as a Vicksburg High assistant football coach, Jackie Williamson has helped lead the Gators (2-0) to two wins in three tries against Natchez (1-1).

He would like nothing more than to add a third.

Williamson, who coached at Natchez High for three years before coming to Vicksburg, still has plenty of friends on the Bulldogs’ coaching staff, but he said he does not approach this game any different than the others.

“You want to go out on that field and beat the team you’re playing,” Williamson said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s a place where you came from or not. It’s a nice feeling to beat the school where you came from, but it’s an important football game no matter who it is.”

Under Williamson and offensive coordinator Alonzo Stevens, the Gators put up gaudy offensive statistics in 1999 and have averaged 24 points per game so far this season.

Vicksburg had its best offensive performance of the season last week in a 27-14 win over Brookhaven. But still, the production of 1999 has yet to be seen this year.

“You can look at one positive and one negative about us right now,” Williamson said. “We’re not throwing 40 or 50 points on the board like we did against some teams last year, but as a team, we are a lot more balanced than we’ve ever been as far as rushing yards and passing yards.

“People got a little spoiled when we were throwing that many points on the board last year, but we were also not 2-0 last year at this time. I’ll take being 2-0 and scoring 20-something points to being 1-1 and scoring 50.”

Quarterback Antonio Rainey has completed 66 percent of his passes for 214 yards and a touchdown, but most importantly, no interceptions. On the season, the Gators have fumbled just one time.

Sophomore tailback Phelon Gray had his best night of his young career against Brookhaven with 121 yards on 25 carries and a pair of touchdowns. J.J. Brown has 130 rushing yards and 134 receiving. He has three touchdowns.

“They have an excellent running game,” Natchez coach Elbert Lyles said. “We have to find a way to stop that.”

Natchez is led by senior quarterback Donald Butler, a smooth runner/passer who connected on an 82-yard touchdown bomb in the Bulldogs’ loss to Gulfport last week.

Should Vicksburg win, though, Williamson said he won’t rub it in with his former colleagues.

“I don’t think it’s very professional to go into a game and beat somebody and then rub it in that’s not me,” Williamson said. “I want to win, but I’m not going to sit there and get through with the ballgame and go across the field to my friends and say, How’d you like that.’ “