MONROE, La. — Cameron Cooksey has been flying under the radar when it comes to naming the top high school quarterbacks in Mississippi.

Three wins in two seasons will do that. Friday night against Richwood, Cooksey might have changed some minds, and with it the course of Vicksburg High’s 2011 season.

Cooksey tossed five touchdown passes, the last coming with 1:05 left to tie the game at 31. Justin Hearn’s PAT put the Gators up 32-31 and the defense withstood a desperate heave on an untimed play to clinch the win and even the team’s record at 1-1.

Cooksey, who completed 21 of 38 passes for 332 yards, was jubilant afterward.

“We showed we are good enough to win these kind of games.” Cooksey said. “During the past week, I think the offense all got on the same page and we got us a victory.”

Cooksey surpassed the 300-yard mark for the fourth time in his high school career, a Warren County record. No other quarterback has accomplished the feat more than three times. He now has 3,724 career passing yards, fourth on the county’s career list and 612 shy of the record set by Ernest Moore from 1971-73 at North Vicksburg and Vicksburg High.

Cooksey also became just the sixth quarterback in county history to throw five touchdown passes in a game. The last was Vicksburg’s Justin Henry, who did it in a 2002 playoff game against Horn Lake.

The Gators’ much-maligned offensive line did its part. Cooksey was sacked just once. He was able to stand in the pocket and deliver sharp throws. Of his 21 completions, 13 went for 10 yards or more. That includes the last one, a 10-yarder to A.J. Stamps that completed a 16-play, 68-yard drive. Earlier in the drive, he converted a do-or-die fourth-and-11 with an 18-yard toss to Clyde Kendrick. Later, he hit Stamps on a 20-yard gain that got the Gators to the 10.

But it was in the first half where Cooksey was particulary sharp. He went 10-of-13 for 183 yards and three touchdowns. Eight of the throws were more than 13 yards and five were more than 20, including a 25-yard TD toss to Lamar Anthony, and 30- and 37-yard TD passes to Kendrick.

Kendrick, best known as one of the state’s most promising left-handed pitchers, had the best night of his football career. He caught 10 passes for 167 yards and two scores.

“We came out to play and try our best,” Kendrick said. “I just used a lot of head fakes to get open and Cam got the ball to me. He did his job well.”

Providing the protection was an offensive line led by senior tackle Norman Price, who played nearly the entire game on a bum ankle.

Vicksburg coach Alonzo Stevens was appreciative.

“He got chop blocked early in the game, just a bad play on them, but you just can’t say enough about Norman’s heart,” Stevens said.

Price was all smiles afterward.

“Things are going to start to change for us now,” Price said. “We’re going to be the new Vicksburg Gators.”

That could apply to the defense, as well. Vicksburg went to a new alignment during its open week. Normally a 4-3 team under Stevens, the Gators used a 3-4 front with some five-man lines mixed in.

“We were getting hurt off the edge, but we also wanted to prevent them from beating us with the dive,” Stevens said. “We put three down linemen in the middle and then use our linebackers to make plays.”

The bad news for the Gators is that one of those linebackers, ShaQuan James, suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury. Eli Brown, who missed the Brandon opener along with James, was back and provided a pass rush along with Bobby Twilley. But it was inside backers Markeith Burks and Jose Gutierrez who kept the defense steady after James went down late in the second quarter.

Burks came up with a sack to force Richwood into a fourth-and-long in the game’s waning seconds. The Rams converted the fourth down as time expired, but the officials allowed them an untimed play after penalizing the Gators for unsportsmanlike conduct. Richwood’s Andrick Mitchell threw a pass to the end zone, which was broken up.