STARKVILLE — Warren Central stood up to the menacing beast known as Starkville, punched it square in the mouth, and had it on the ropes for three quarters Friday night.

The Yellow Jackets, though, proved why they’re the No. 1 team in Mississippi by shaking off each blow, scoring four unanswered touchdowns, and churning out a 27-17 win in one of their biggest challenges of the season.

Starkville scored twice in an eight-play span in the third and fourth quarters, then took the lead for good on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Brady Davis to A.J. Brown. Davis threw four touchdown passes to lead the Jackets’ comeback.

It was yet another heartbreaking defeat for Warren Central, which has lost its last two games by a combined 11 points. It was also an encouraging one, however, and a game that coach Josh Morgan believes will pay dividends as playoff season approaches. The Vikings held Starkville’s potent offense to just 86 first-half yards and 267 total — the Yellow Jackets’ worst output of the season.

WC (8-2, 4-2 Region 2-6A) has clinched a playoff berth, but must beat Columbus in next week’s regular-season finale to secure the No. 3 seed in the region and avoid a first-round matchup with undefeated South Panola. Starkville (10-0, 7-0) will play at Clinton (9-1, 7-0) to decide the region championship.

“We played a really good football game. I think we got better as a football team. There’s no doubt about it,” Morgan said. “That’s the No. 1 football team in the state, and rightfully so. We saw where we are and hopefully we’ll get a chance to play them again.”

Warren Central jumped out to a 9-0 lead at halftime behind two calculated drives led by quarterback Alex Stevens. After a Nick Wright field goal broke the ice, the Vikings marched down the field in nine plays before Stevens threw a 6-yard strike over the middle to Liam Hopson to increase the lead to 9-0 heading into the half.

WC scored again early in the third quarter, putting the ball in the end zone on a perfectly executed end around that allowed Marcus Ragan to find paydirt from 63 yards out. A two-point conversion made it 17-0.

“The number one thing that I took away from this is our coaching staff. What an amazing job they did putting us in a position to win this game,” Morgan said. “We were outmanned across the board and we had a great game plan and my hat’s off to our coaching staff, because they did a fantastic job of regrouping our players.”

Starkville finally answered, though, scoring two quick touchdowns to cut its deficit to 17-14.

Clinging to the lead with the ball at their own 20, the Vikings began a drive to potentially put the game away. Stevens rolled out of the pocket on the sixth play of the series and fired a ball toward the sideline that was intercepted. Starkville gave itself an injection of life and Davis took advantage of it, tossing a 9-yard touchdown just a few plays later to make the score 21-17 and give his team its first lead of the night with 8:39 to play.

Stevens injured himself making the tackle on his interception. He didn’t return to the game, and the Vikings weren’t able to threaten again.

“Our team came up here to win. We harped on that all week. We weren’t coming up here to play them as close as we could and play it safe and try to hang with them,” Morgan said. “We came up here to win, and we had every intention of winning.”

Starkville 27, Warren Central 17

Records: Starkville (10-0, 7-0 Region 2-6A); Warren Central (8-2, 5-2)

Up next: Warren Central hosts Columbus

No. 1 Starkville scores four touchdowns in last 14 minutes to spoil Warren Central’s upset bid