Warren Central’s Kari Lieberman, left, puts a juke move on teammate Mary Clare Scurria during practice for the Class 5A state soccer playoffs, which begin tonight. (Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[1/25/05]Monday afternoon Warren Central boys soccer coach Jay Harrison was busy working on his plan for tonight’s Class 5A playoff soccer match with Oak Grove.

“I’m trying to recreate something,” Harrison said as he watched the Vikings go through a spirited scrimmage. Warren Central (13-6-1) travels to meet the eighth-ranked Warriors (16-4-1) tonight at 7:30 p.m.

The WC Lady Vikes (15-6-2) will take to the field first in an opening round match against the 12th-ranked Oak Grove girls at 5:30.

Harrison feels the Warriors are an underrated team and one that poses a monster test for his young team.

“Oak Grove is way better than being ranked eighth in the state,” Harrison said. “We played them in the second round last year and lost on a golden goal.

“The difference this year is that they have everybody back on a team that made it to the South State finals, while I lost nine guys.”

What Harrison was trying to recreate on Monday was a defensive plan to help stop the powerful Oak Grove offense.

“Oak Grove is a fast team, way faster than us. What we’ve got to do is don’t let them score. They can’t win the game if they can’t score,” Harrison said. “Using a defensive approach gives us a lot more options against a good team, especially one with a lot of speed.”

Oak Grove has beaten several of the state’s elite teams. They blitzed Hattiesburg 12-0 on Friday.

“They have some good wins. They beat Northwest Rankin twice, they beat Gulfport and beat Clinton once,” Harrison said. “We’ve just got to go in there with a lot of heart and fire and be ready to play.”

The Vikings are led by Daniel Edney and Charlie Mullen. Both players have nine goals on the season. Edney leads in assists with 11.

Lady Vikes head coach Kristin Gough thinks her team has a good shot at picking up a road playoff win.

“I think we’re pretty evenly matched with them,” Gough said. “They have a strong team and will have the home-field in their favor.”

But its play against common opponents is where Gough feels the Lady Vikes have an advantage.

“They lost to Northwest Rankin and we beat them twice. But they beat Vicksburg and we didn’t, so that’s pretty even,” Gough said.

The Lady Vikes are led by sophomore Kari Lieberman and senior keeper Emily Coker.

“Emily has had an outstanding senior season,” Gough said. “She has 14 shutouts in our 15 wins and has given up only 19 goals in 23 games.”

Lieberman paces the club with 17 goals this season.