Vikings find 2nd half surge

Warren Central turned a sluggish first half into a homecoming victory Friday night and stayed in contention for a Region 2-5A state playoff berth.

The Vikings (3-5, 2-2) scored 10 unanswered points in the second half to take down the Murrah Mustangs 17-7 at Viking Stadium.

After racking up only 94 yards of offense in the first half, the Vikings turned to the running tandem of Joel Forbes and Travis Bell to get things rolling in the second half.

Bell finished with 113 yards on 17 carries and a score, while Forbes gained a bruising 97 yards on 29 carries for the Vikings.

WC head coach Curtis Brewer gave credit to his offense, especially quarterback Keaton Sanders.

“Our offense never lost composure in the second half,” Brewer said. “Keaton stayed settled and you could sense it in the huddle every play.”

With a little more than four minutes to play in the third quarter, senior wing back Ben Wau Caples took a handoff from Sanders and attempted to sneak around the right side of the line. The ball came loose during the exchange and Murrah cornerback Mike Hill scooped up the drop and raced 30 yards to the end zone to put the Mustangs up 7-0.

On WC’s next possession, the Vikings drove the ball 65 yards on nine plays, highlighted by a 33-yard pass from Sanders to wide receiver Quinton Truly for a first down on the Murrah 14. Bell capped the drive with a 2 yard run up the middle knotting the score at 7-7 with just under a minute to play in the third.

“I got to give praise to our offensive line tonight,” Bell said. “They practiced hard all week and it allowed us to run the ball effectively in the second half.”

The Viking defense held the Mustangs on their next drive and Warren Central got the boost it needed to gain the go-ahead touchdown.

That boost came from Caples, who got some payback from his earlier miscue.

On the second play from scrimmage, Caples took the handoff from Sanders and blazed a trail down the Viking sideline for a 45-yard gain, bringing the home crowd to its feet and setting up a first down on the Mustang 28. Six plays later Forbes got his turn and scored from three yards out with 7:40 to play in the game to put the Vikings ahead for good, 14-7.

Jared Thames added a 40-yard field goal with 53 seconds left to seal the win.

“I tell you what, there’s never been a team at Warren Central that needed to win a ballgame like this bunch did tonight,” Brewer said. “It was homecoming and our guys focused all week and now they can go and enjoy this victory tonight.”

Vicksburg earns playoff spot

By Sean P. Murphy

Friday night’s 49-6 Vicksburg High trouncing of Lanier can be summed up with one play late in the fourth quarter.

Facing a fourth-and-goal at the Lanier 21-yard line, running back Marlon Maxey took a handoff up the middle and galloped his way into the end zone for a touchdown.

It was just that kind of homecoming for the Gators — rarely did anything go wrong.

Vicksburg (6-2, 4-1 Region 3-4A) locked up a playoff spot with a dominating performance over a Bulldog team prone to mistakes and very little else.

“It was homecoming and we wanted to send the seniors out right,” said Vicksburg’s Robert Prentiss, who forced one fumble and recovered another. “We talked all week about how the seniors wanted to be remembered. They wanted to be remembered as the best. The defense and the offense came out and played like the best.”

Quarterback Stanton Price passed Porters Chapel graduate Ben Jernigan for second all-time in passing yards in Warren County with a crisp 9-of-10 passing performance for 113 yards and three touchdowns — all to wide receiver John Qualls. Price now has 3,810 yards for his career and trails Ernest Moore by 526 yards to become Warren County’s all-time leading passer.

Price could have padded the stat sheet, but he and the rest of the starters were taken out of the game after the Gators’ first drive of the second half, which ended with a 12-yard TD pass from Price to Qualls. The senior duo also hooked up on a 31-yard TD in the first quarter and a 2-yard TD pass in the second.

“Lanier came out and concentrated on stopping Delmon (Robinson) and they were worried about Les (Lemons),” Vicksburg coach Alonzo Stevens said. “They left John open all night long.”

Jeremy Hamlin scored two touchdowns and ran seven times for 76 yards to pace the Gators’ ground attack. He scored first half touchdowns on runs of 9 and 15 yards as Vicksburg built a 28-0 halftime lead. Lanier managed minus-2 yards of total offense, fumbled twice and threw an interception in the first half.

Only after Vicksburg had built a 43-0 lead did the Bulldogs score a touchdown — against the Gators’ reserves.

After Qualls’ third touchdown 1 minute, 21 seconds into the third quarter, Lanier was forced to punt and the Gators drove the field, capping the drive with a 10-yard TD scamper by Robinson, who carried the ball 10 times for 56 yards.

Maxey finished off the scoring with 4:41 left in the game with his 21-yard TD run.

The Gators will host Canton next Friday night in their final region home game of the year. Canton, Yazoo City and Vicksburg came into Friday night’s game all tied for second place behind unbeaten Ridgeland, which beat Yazoo County 34-0 on Friday night.

“We are taking it one game at a time,” Prentiss said. “We have to worry about Canton, then we’ll worry about Ridgeland.”