Friday’s road game at Canton was supposed to be the end of a relatively easy October for the Vicksburg Gators. It was supposed to be a game that maybe clinched a playoff berth, or even put them in position to play for the Region 2-5A championship in the last two weeks of the season.

Somewhere along the way, “supposed to be” became a long way from actually being.

The Gators (4-4, 1-3 Region 2-5A) have lost three of four over the past month, and look far different than the team that went 3-1 during their non-region schedule. Friday’s game with Canton (3-5, 1-3) has become a fight for survival, where both teams need to win out to have any chance at a playoff berth and the loser is eliminated from contention.

“We just have to take it a week at a time and look at some scenarios, and just try to get this ‘W’ against Canton Friday. If we just win out, we’ll be OK,” Vicksburg coach Marcus Rogers said. “It is pretty much an elimination game. The good thing is, these kids the last couple of years have beaten Canton. We feed off of confidence and that mental psyche thing, so with beating them these last couple of years this core group is going to believe and they’re going to come out motivated and ready to go.”

It’s not hard to identify the cause of Vicksburg’s bleak October. An offense that was good enough to complement an outstanding defense in September has committed 10 turnovers and scored a total of 42 points in the three losses in region play.

Quarterback Joe Johnson has thrown for 971 yards and nine touchdown passes this season, but threw six interceptions in losses to Germantown and Neshoba Central. Rogers has been using backup Devontay Knight more and more since he returned from injury two weeks ago, and said Knight will continue to get a lot of playing time going forward.

The Gators also lost three fumbles in last week’s 31-21 loss to Ridgeland. Besides negating their own offensive opportunities, Rogers said the turnovers have had an even more devastating effect by leading directly to points for their opponents. Two of the 10 turnovers have been returned for touchdowns, and several others have set up easy scoring drives.

“Three first-play fumbles. One for a touchdown, the other two just setting them up for success, and then it came back to bite us. They got out there a little bit too far on us,” Rogers said of the turnovers against Ridgeland. “That hurts. That’s a recipe for disaster.”

The recent slide has put Vicksburg, as well as Canton, in a three-way tie for fifth place along with Neshoba Central. Three teams are 3-1 in Region 2-5A, meaning the three fifth-place teams are two back with three to play. Vicksburg has an uphill climb, with first-place Grenada (6-2, 4-0) and Holmes County Central (6-2, 3-1) left on the schedule after Canton, but Rogers isn’t ready to throw in the towel yet. Not by a long shot.

The coach is quick to point out that the teams in the upper half of the division have a few games left against each other. He laid out several plausible scenarios that would allow the Gators to come back from the abyss and join the postseason party.

All of them, however, require the Gators to quickly clean up their play and win the rest of their games. Rogers has seen enough from his players this season to know they’ve got it in them. Now it’s just a matter of finding it and using it.

“It’s not unreasonable. Grenada is undefeated in the district, but they’re not world-beaters,” Rogers said. “The best team on our schedule was Warren Central. If we can bring that same mentality that week to Grenada — well, let’s take care of Canton first — but if we can bring that same mentality, those guys can swarm to the ball and get up emotionally like they get up for that game, we’ll beat Grenada. Then it’s coming down to Holmes County Central to see who wants to go to the playoffs.”

Vicksburg at Canton

Friday, 7 p.m.

Radio: 1490 AM

Online: For live scoring updates on Friday night, visit Facebook.com/thevicksburgpost and Twitter.com/vicksburgpost