Vicksburg’s Jay Hall heads a ball as Picayune’s Ryan Campbell, far left, and Mitchell Jacobs defend during Tuesday’s Class 5A playoff game at Memorial Stadium. At right is Vicksburg’s Michael Cooper. (Brian Loden The Vicksburg Post)

[1/26/05] No matter how hard he tries, how much he pleads, the Vicksburg Gators just won’t do what coach Jason Bennett asks them to.

They keep doing more.

John Howard, Matt Minyard and Michael Cooper each scored a goal, and Cameron Curtis had two assists as Vicksburg beat Picayune 3-2 Tuesday night in the first round of the Class 5A playoffs.

It was the first home playoff game in school history for the Gators (12-7-1), and also their first playoff win. They’ll play on the road against Gulfport in the second round on Saturday.

“Right now I’m kind of in shock,” Bennett said. “I’m not surprised, because I thought we could do it. But I’m in shock that in my first year here, I’m in the second round of the playoffs.”

Vicksburg dominated Picayune (10-8-2) from start to finish, but allowed the Maroon Tide to linger until the end.

The Gators missed eight breakaway chances in the game including four in the first 16 minutes and were called for offsides nine times. In the second half, five different Vicksburg players received yellow cards for arguing with officials, even though some of the “arguments” consisted of little more than body language.

“There at the end, I thought it could have swung their way more than it did. I thought we kept our composure as well as we could have under the circumstances,” Bennett said.

After Vicksburg’s early breakaway bonanza yielded no goals, the Gators broke through for two scores in the last 4 1/2 minutes of the first half.

Howard knocked the ball away from Picayune keeper Kaleb Raybon and booted a soft shot just across the goal line for a 1-0 VHS lead. Three minutes later, Minyard drove home a corner kick from Curtis to make it 2-0 at halftime.

Picayune kept coming in the second half, though, and got on the board on Britton Fortenberry’s penalty kick four minutes in.

After Cooper scored off another corner from Curtis to make it 3-1, Picayune again drew within a goal when Franco Martinez scored at the 22-minute mark.

That was the last offensive gasp for either team.

The last 18 minutes was a flurry of whistles and yellow cards that stopped only when the game ended.

“It was frustrating,” Minyard said. “We kept getting calls against us, and we were just waiting for the whistle to blow and get it over with.”