For Germantown, the best offense was a good defense.

The Mavericks forced five turnovers, including one interception that was returned for a touchdown and another that set up a short scoring run, and held Vicksburg’s running backs to 38 rushing yards in a 31-12 victory Friday night at Memorial Stadium.

Dalton Bradfield rushed for 152 yards and three touchdowns for Germantown, which only had 222 yards of total offense.

“We had some plays that could’ve been made. I think we forced some things at times,” Vicksburg coach Marcus Rogers said. “I’ve still got a young quarterback, so we’ve just got to let him grow and let him mature. That’s why they call them growing pains. He’s going to be OK. We’re going to reap the benefits in the future. Right now we’re going to take lumps.”

Vicksburg receiver Tedarius Brown caught 10 passes for 99 yards and a touchdown.

Quarterback Joe Johnson completed 17 of 28 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for 103 yards — mostly on scrambles when his pass protection broke down.

Johnson also got sacked three times and threw four interceptions, which were especially costly. Two ended drives in Germantown territory. The other two bookended halftime and were backbreakers for the Gators.

With just under two minutes to go in the second quarter, Johnson was flushed out of the pocket to his right and tried to chuck the ball deep out of bounds. The pass was a floater that was picked off by Jamie Johnson and returned 68 yards for a touchdown to give Germantown a 17-6 lead.

“It was kind of a floater and I just went up and caught it,” said Jamie Johnson, who had two interceptions. “We got them thinking we were in the wrong coverage, and then we got into the right coverage. They’d throw the ball and we were right there.”

Vicksburg got the ball near midfield to start the second half, but ran into trouble again. On third-and-12, Joe Johnson threw a pass into traffic over the middle that was intercepted by John Hand.

Hand made his way to the sideline, where he picked up a convoy of blockers. He made it to the 4-yard line before he was tackled, and Bradfield scored on the next play to put the Mavericks ahead 24-6.

“It was 10-6 and they hadn’t stopped us all half. They go in and score, we go up 13-10, come out the second half and score again, it’s 20-10 and you kind of put them away,” Rogers said. “We let them hang in there, threw the pick-six, then the pick-six after the half. It wasn’t what beat us, but that was rough.”

Johnson bounced back to lead a quick scoring drive. He ran 34 yards to the Germantown 19, then threw a touchdown pass to Raheam Moore on the next play to get the Gators within 24-12 as the third quarter ended.

Germantown, however, got a 35-yard return by Taury Dixon on the ensuing kickoff and Bradfield carried four straight times out of the wildcat formation to get the ball into the end zone. His last carry was a 9-yard run straight up the middle, punctuated by a celebratory hop as he crossed the goal line. It gave Germantown a 31-12 lead after Conner McKay’s PAT, and VHS never threatened to get back in the game.

Vicksburg did drive down into the red zone in the final minute, but a pass into the end zone was intercepted.