Warren Central continued its dominant trend on the pitch Friday, using goals by five different players to blast Murrah 7-0 and improve to 10-3-2 on the season.

The Vikings got things started just three minutes into the match when Hunt Holdiness rocketed a volley in for a score, and WC was able to put things on cruise control from that point forward.

“It’s a district win, so that’s always good. The thing is, we got almost everybody back and that’s a plus,” Warren Central coach Greg Head said. “Now we’ve got more depth than we’ve had in the past. We’re playing well. We were making shots today, which was an improvement.”

Connor Wilkinson pushed the lead to 2-0 just minutes later on a goal off a throw-in, and Holdiness ended the first half scoring with another volley from a perfectly-placed Nick Wright cross to extend the lead to 3-0. Wright ended the night with two goals and an assist. The junior’s first score came on a one-touch blast off a cross from Braylen Greer that he buried in the back of the net. Wright’s second goal came late in the match when he buried a shot past Murrah’s keeper to bring the score to 6-0.

Max Wamsley and Sean Dixon also scored for Warren Central, which has outscored opponents 12-0 in the past two games.

“It’s a good tune-up. We’re working the ball. It helps us with just working the ball,” Head said. “In the first half we weren’t passing with accuracy. We were passing, but our passes weren’t hitting their mark. In the second half, we settled down and we started making good passes.”

The Vikings go on the road to face Meridian today before coming back home to square off against division rival Clinton in a pivotal Division 4-6A game.

“We’re pretty evenly matched up with Clinton. It’s going to be a battle Tuesday because we’re pretty evenly matched up.” Head said. “They have a little bit more speed than we have because they have some select players that we don’t have, but the number of players and as hard as we play, we’ll match up well with them.”

(G) Warren Central 3, Murrah 1

Drew Barnes recorded a hat trick and Warren Central came back from a 1-0 halftime deficit to defeat Murrah at home Friday night.

After falling behind 1-0 early in the game, Barnes notched her first goal to knot things up. Just a few ticks later, she gave the Lady Vikes the lead for good with a header off a corner kick that impressed both those in attendance and her coaches on the sideline.

“I’ve been working on finishing with (the team) ever since the Vicksburg game,” Warren Central assistant coach Viktoria Case said. “The first half was the same thing. We couldn’t finish the ball, and then it finally started happening.”

Barnes capped her career night with a late goal to cement the win and propel Warren Central to the top half of the Division 4-6A standings before a big rivalry matchup with Clinton on Tuesday.

“We play Meridian (today) so hopefully we’ll keep the momentum going for our next district game versus Clinton. We’ve got one district game. Now we just need the other two,” Case said. “We’re really hoping we’ll get first in the district this year. That’s one of our team goals that we wanted, so hopefully we can make that happen.”