Brandon controlled the ball most of the time Thursday night at Viking Stadium and earned a 1-0 win over Warren Central in Class 5A boys soccer play.

For WC coach Jay Harrison, seeing his Vikings give up just a single goal was reason enough to be pleased.

&#8220We hung in there against a top-notch team,” Harrison said. &#8220In my estimation, Brandon is going to win South State and play for the state championship.”

Brandon moved to 9-1-3 on the season while WC slipped to 5-8.

&#8220We accomplished what we wanted to in this game and that was to defend from the midfield,” Harrison added. &#8220The only goal we gave up came off a direct kick when we missed it off our wall.”

That goal came with 11 minutes, 10 seconds left in the first half. The Bulldogs’ Zach Puckett took the 25-yard direct kick and looped it hard enough over the Vikings’ defensive wall.

The Vikings were limited to just five chances in the first half. Cody Massey had a header stopped by Brandon goalie Justin Palmer while Eric Richards missed a shot wide, and also had a 40-yard penalty kick get stopped.

Brandon, which had nine shots in the first half, kept it up in the second. The Vikings had just one good chance and it came early when Rob Heltzel got ahead of his defender, but slipped down before a strong kick to the goal could be made.

Brandon’s short passing game kept the Bulldogs in control of the midfield. About the only thing that went wrong was two soft-red cards handed to Scotty Beatty and Brad James.

&#8220We just couldn’t keep our mouths closed,” said Brandon coach Randy West of the two yellow cards that became red after further arguing with the refs.

&#8220They were a couple of soft-reds so Brandon could sub them out,” Harrison said.

&#8220Our short game was pretty good but couldn’t finish in our offensive third,” West added. &#8220Warren Central played pretty well and their counter attack was good.”

Warren Central is scheduled to play at Florence on Saturday at 11 a.m.

(G) Brandon 3, WC 1.

Brandon (9-3) built a 3-0 lead and then held on to beat the Lady Vikes.

Samantha Breland scored her second goal of the game to put the Lady Bulldogs up 2-0 with 29:15 to play. Perryn Tyler made it 3-0 with 14:30 remaining.

The Lady Vikes got on the board with 3:52 left when Kari Lieberman booted a high arching goal from 45 yards out.

WC (10-4) was scheduled to play Florence today in the first round of the Brandon-Northwest Rankin Girls Soccer Tournament. A WC win could set up a rematch with the Lady Bulldogs on Saturday morning.

University Christ. 6, PCA 1.

Evan Rogers booted in a goal for Porters Chapel, but University Christian prevailed at Mark Strickland Field in Bovina.

The Eagles are still looking for their first win since starting the program last season.

Kyle Newsome scored three goals and three other UCS players scored a goal apiece in the victory.