Richmond Fields of Warren Central grinds up yardage in the Vikings’ 29-13 win against Northwest Rankin earlier this season. (The Vicksburg Post/Melanie Duncan)

[11/08/02]Warren Central has dominated its series with archrival Vicksburg High, winning 20 of the 21 meetings between the schools. Yet, as the teams prepare to tee it up tonight at Memorial Stadium, it’s the Vikings that are looking for redemption.

Two weeks ago, WC was flying high at 8-0 and in control of its own destiny for the Region 2-5A championship. After consecutive losses to Clinton and woeful Murrah, however, the Vikings are simply trying to get back on their feet.

Another loss would force WC (8-2, 4-2) to travel more than three hours to Horn Lake, Starkville, or Southaven for the first round. A victory tonight would give the Vikings the No. 2 seed in the region and a first-round home playoff game.

Beating Vicksburg (7-3, 5-1) again would just be an added benefit.

“The biggest thing about this game is, if we win, we get to stay home,” WC coach Robert Morgan said. “You can blow it out of whack any way you want to, but it’s a long way up yonder.”

To hear Morgan tell it, the Vikings seem to have booked their bus trip up I-55 already.

WC’s defense was shredded for 337 yards passing in last week’s stunning 25-22 loss to Murrah, leaving the Vikings shaken and shellshocked.

“It was a pretty somber fieldhouse Monday. The coaches and players,” Morgan said. “It was similar to a death in the family. Not that serious, but a pretty somber deal.”

Now they’ll face VHS, which has one of the top offenses in the state.

Fullback Phelan Gray has rushed for 890 yards and 10 touchdowns, and quarterback Justin Henry leads Warren County with 1,406 yards and 13 touchdown passes.

“To me, it’s going to be just how it was last year. It’s not going to be a three- or four-man thing,” WC linebacker Tyler DeRossette said. “They’ve got too many weapons to worry about this area or that area.”

Defensively, the Gators have improved over the last two weeks. In wins over Callaway and Forest Hill, VHS has allowed only 16 points.

“Really good coverage, speed, and aggressiveness,” WC quarterback Jeremy Ferguson said, listing the strengths of the VHS defense. “Pretty much everything we’ve seen this year, except more of it.”

The Vikings aren’t without their own weapons, however.

Ferguson has thrown for 989 yards and completed 51.2 percent of his passes while throwing only two interceptions in 129 attempts.

Running back Richmond Fields is one of the top backs in Class 5A, with 1,131 yards and 12 touchdowns, and fullback Henry Williams provides some punch with 479 yards on the season.

“We have to keep them in check,” Vicksburg coach Alonzo Stevens said. “Ferguson’s throwing the ball well and they got some guys that can run. What we have to do is go in and execute our game plan.”

The Vikings have gotten back to basics this week, trying to find the formula that carried them to those eight straight wins at the beginning of the season.

The winning streak seems like a long time ago, however.

“We’ve tried to figure out what’s wrong with us, and we can’t figure it out,” Morgan said. “We’ve got to play like we did at the beginning. We’ve got to go back to that 11 brothers’ deal nobody’s good, nobody’s great, but somebody has to step up and make a play.”

More often than not in this series, someone has done just that for Warren Central.

VHS has scored more than two touchdowns only twice in the 21-year history of the series, in 1992 and 1996. The Vikings still managed to win both times.

Several times, it’s appeared the Gators have had the better team only to fall yet again to the mighty red machine.

This year, however, the Vikings aren’t likely to bring any of that history up. Not with their confidence shaken, and so much more at stake than bragging rights.

“I feel like we’re coming off two losses and we’re going to bounce back,” said WC linebacker Andrew Patten, who leads the team with 88 tackles. “We aren’t going to worry about running our mouths, we’re just going to get back to playing Viking football.”