Down 28-7 at the half, it looked like Warren Central was going to have as long a night as Vicksburg High did against Ocean Springs.

But these are not last year’s Vikings. Junior quarterback Beau Wallace led a pair of second-half scoring drives and the Vikings got the ball back with four minutes left, but the rally fell short as Gulfport escaped with a 35-21 Red Carpet Bowl win Friday night at Viking Stadium.

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Gulfport coach Mike Justice said his team had to bear down to stop the Viking comeback.

“It got close there in the fourth quarter. But that’s why we wanted to come up here. We got a quality win against  a good football team,” Justice said. “Warren Central doesn’t quit and I knew this was going to be a tough place to get out of here with a win.”

Vikings coach Curtis Brewer was just as proud of his team’s fight.

“The big thing was that in the first and second quarter, it showed that we hadn’t had a lot of contact,” Brewer said. “We were standing too much and reaching. In the third and fourth quarter, we got used to the speed of the game. The kids stepped up and we kept playing hard.

 “We just want to improve on the good things we did, like how we played in the third and fourth quarters.”

A big lift for the Vikings (0-1) was the play of its new quarterback Wallace. He got to air out the ball, passing more than any Warren Central quarterback has in recent memory.

Wallace finished 12-of-27 for 151 yards and one touchdown.

One of the biggest tosses came on a 23-yard pass to Patrick Taylor early in the fourth quarter to turn a third-and-28 from the Gulfport 41 into a manageable fourth-and-5 from the Admiral 19. Wallace then hit Malcom Grant for a 12-yard gain to convert the fourth down. Three plays later Tim Jones scored from the 4 and after Devin Jones’ kick, the Vikings were within 28-21 with more than 10 minutes to go.

Gulfport appeared set to go back up two scores, but Alan Famiglio missed a 32-yard field goal wide left with 4:39 left, giving the Vikings and Wallace a chance to draw even.

Three straight passes, however, fell incomplete. On fourth down, the Vikings tried a fake punt from their own 20. Wallace’s pass to Tim Jones fell out of his hands and Gulfport took over on downs.

Admiral quarterback Derrick Lattimer capped his huge game by scoring on a 1-yard sneak with 2:28 left to make it 35-21 after Famiglio’s kick.

Lattimer finished with 158 yards rushing including four touchdowns on runs of 22, 10 and two 1-yard plunges. He also completed 4 of 7 passes for 87 yards and one score, a 23-yard toss to Travon Travis.

“All the praise goes to my offensive line. They gave me the space,” Lattimer said. “We thought this might be an easy game once we got the big lead but Warren Central fought the whole game.”

Gulfport jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter as Lattimer scored on a 22-yard run and then hit Travis on the 23-yard TD pass. A controversial call helped Gulfport’s first score when WC’s Austin Roberts appeared to partially block an Admiral punt. But he was called instead for running into the punter. Gulfport scored four plays later.

WC came back with Wallace hitting Lebarron Lee on a 13-yard TD pass. Devon Bell’s kick made it 14-7 with 11:16 left in the second quarter.

Lattimer answered for the Admirals. A 53-yard pass to Travis set up his 1-yard TD run to up the lead to 21-7. Wallace tried to counter but his long pass to Lee was intercepted by Donnis Harvey at the Gulfport 10. Lattimer then led a 90-yard drive capped by his 10-yard run to make it 28-7 with 3:19 left in the half.

Wallace led a 47-yard drive in the third quarter capped by Jones’ 1-yard run to make it 28-14 with 1:09 left in the third quarter. Jones finished with 65 yards on 10 carries.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com