The bad news for Vicksburg is the team struggled in all phases in a 49-7 loss to Pearl Friday in the Red Carpet Bowl. The good news is the Gators get an early bye week to fix their mistakes.

First-year coach Tavares Johnson Sr. was not pleased with the effort, but he preached patience. Despite the lopsided score, the Gators (0-1) were just a play or two away in the first half from making a game of it.

“We’re going to make sure our kids understand the scheme, because the scheme was beautiful, the scheme was there,” Johnson said. “We had the screen open a couple of times and we just dropped the pass. We just didn’t block. It was a total team loss. We’ve got to get there and take care of the little stuff in the bye week. Vicksburg fans, don’t be too hard on us and the kids, because we’re going to get this turned around.”

The HOBO (High Output Balanced Offense) ran out of gas, threw a piston and ground to a halt Friday. The young Gator offensive line, matched against a bigger, deeper front seven for Pearl, lost the battle in the trenches. The Pirates were able to take away the Gator ground game, as tailback Jalen Williams was held to 1.5 yards per carry. Four of his 15 carries were for loss. Remove a 24-yard sweep by Terrell Smith, a 29-yard scamper by quarterback Tavares Johnson Jr. and a 43-yard TD pass to De’Andre King and the Gators managed only 79 yards of offense and seven first downs.

Defensively, the Gators were pushed around by Pearl’s big offensive line in addition to being on the losing end of the field-position battle.

The Pirates’ average starting point was Vicksburg’s 45-yard-line, while Gators’ average was their 19. Pearl’s Jordan Wright finished with 136 yards and two scores, with most of those yards coming on an 62-yard run off right tackle. The Pirates also rotated four other backs into the game.

The worst performance might’ve been on special teams. Punter Garrett Watson fielded bad snaps under pressure all night, but he managed to get off a kick each time.

But the biggest breakdown put the game out of reach.

The Gators gave up a 90-yard kickoff return to open the third quarter when Demorrious Brown took advantage of a blown assignment and scooted down the sideline untouched for a score.

Despite the lopsided final score, Pearl coach John Perry has no doubt that Johnson will get things turned around at Vicksburg.

“They’re going to be really good, but Coach (Johnson) is in week one, year one of that rebuilding process,” Perry said. “We’re in year five and that’s really the difference. They’ve won two or three games a year for the past few years, so it’s not like he took over a South Panola team. They’re going to be fine and he’s going to do a great job, I promise you.”