Vicksburg High football coach Marcus Rogers spent a lot of time Tuesday talking with basketball coach Dellie Robinson.

Robinson knows what it takes to create a winning program, as his glimmering 2003 Class 5A state championship ring can attest to, and picking a successful coach’s brain is always helpful — even when the relationship crosses sports. Following a defeat that brought his team’s record down to 3-4, Rogers surprisingly liked what he heard from his program’s role model.

“I’ve been talking to Coach Robinson all morning because that’s the guy I want to emulate my program after. He’s been to state championship after state championship,” Rogers said. “He said to forget what people say. He said, ‘Coach, you’re not far off. There’s a couple of things here and there you need to fix but for the most part, y’all are right there.’”

The words of encouragement provided a silver lining to a gut-wrenching defeat to Ridgeland last Friday that dropped the Gators to 1-2 in Region 2-5A play. Rogers didn’t mince words when discussing this week’s game against Canton (2-5, 0-3 Region 2-5A), saying there is a definite sense of urgency permeating the locker room that has his team scrambling for a region win with just four regular season games left to play.

“They knew this was a game that we needed to win,” he said. “When we played them, even throughout the game, (the players) kept saying, ‘We’re going to win it. Just hang in there. At the end, we’ll pull it out.’”

But that confidence was shattered when, as the Gators began to drive for a potential game-winning score in the second half, Ridgeland forced a fumble and returned it for a touchdown.

It might have been the most excruciating play to turn the game in Ridgeland’s favor but it was far from the only one. Vicksburg coughed up the ball three times — the first of which was an interception on the first play of the game — and gave up a touchdown on fourth down following the opening pick that forced it to start from behind for the fourth time in six games. It’s something the Gators must fix, and quick, if they want to have a shot at reaching the postseason.

“I think these kids play off confidence. We’d been preaching all week momentum, confidence, believe in yourself. Let’s come out first drive no matter what, we want the ball. Let’s score the first drive,” Rogers said. “To throw an interception on the first play of the game, that’s big. That’s just a big downer. Then for them to score on fourth down like that kind of put us down. I could kind of tell in some guys’ eyes.”

Battling another team is tough enough, but the first-year head coach has also been forced to battle the woe-is-me attitude that comes with early, costly mistakes. That battle will continue to rage this week as Vicksburg gets set to take on the Tigers in a pivotal region matchup.

“We’re still battling these guys’ mentality and trying to get it where it needs to be for it to be strong. Just like I was telling a parent the other night — football is like life,” Rogers said. “You’re going to battle a lot of adverse situations. It’s what you do when you come back after that adversity. How do you change or rewrite the script? We’re battling that and I think we’ll be OK this week.”

Prep football on the radio

Friday, 7 p.m.

Vicksburg at Canton – 1490 AM

Warren Central at Murrah – 105.5 FM

Shaw at St. Aloysius – 101.3 FM