It’s not how you start, but how you finish.

Vicksburg played a first half the Gators would rather forget, but in the second half, they rallied to earn a 3-1 victory over visiting Terry on Friday.

“We’ve had some problems with people being out, for various reasons, injuries and discipline problems,” Vicksburg coach Jason Bennett said. “You keep playing with, I hate to say it, makeshift lineups that you wouldn’t ordinarily play with. We started off that way, I made some changes in the lineup in the second half, and it worked. It gave us some speed up top.”

Down 1-0 at the break after Terry’s Ken Millsap booted in an unassisted goal, the Gators (3-2) tied the game at the midway point of the second half with a Chris Green unassisted boot. They took the lead as Jordan Watson knocked in a dropped ball at the front of the goal box by Terry’s keeper. Striker Chucky Hayden juked a Terry defender out of his shorts with a contorting move in front of the goal box to add the final goal to cap the rally.

(G) Vicksburg 4, Terry 2

Terry quickly got a primer on who Tabitha Hayden was. The Vicksburg striker scored three goals in the first five minutes to pace the Missy Gators (4-2) to a win over Terry. Assisting on two of those goals were Raven London and Robin Cooper.

Amy Dixon scored the other goal for the Missy Gators, who had to hold off a furious second-half surge by Terry.

“I saw our defensive positioning improve tremendously,” Vicksburg coach Kori Babb said. “In the first half, Terry couldn’t figure out Tabitha Hayden. Couldn’t touch her.

“But in the second half, they figured out who she was and started marking her.”

Babb was pleased with the effort overall.

“We started passing the ball a lot better than we had been, but we still need to work on our first touch and we need to work on fighting to win the ball a little more,” Babb said. “I saw some good things and some bad things, but it was a good game for us.”

(B) Richland 4, St. Al 1

Brayden Banks scored the lone goal as St. Aloysius fell in its season opener to Richland.

(G) St. Al 4, Richland 0

Junior Riley Griffith scored a hat trick and assisted on another goal to lead St. Al to a rout of Richland at Balzli Field. The Lady Flashes (2-2) are young, but have already pushed a Class 6A foe, Starkville, to the limit in tournament play, proving that youth is not always a detriment. A pair of middle schoolers played big roles. Seventh grader and forward Nicole Hayward had a goal and an assist, while eighth-grader Alexa Baldizon had seven saves in the shutout, three of which were of the spectacular variety, in goal for the Flashes.

“We’re coming together as a team and I’m liking what I’m seeing,” first-year St. Al coach Suzie Channell said. “I’ve seen it from the beginning and I have confidence in these girls. They’re starting to develop some confidence.”

Stephanie Riveros added another assist for the Lady Flashes.