Warren Central made it through the first month of the season unscathed and firmly established itself as a contender for the Class 6A championship.

Now comes the hard part.

The Vikings (4-0) begin their run through the Region 2-6A gauntlet Friday night when they host Northwest Rankin (4-1) at 7 p.m. The league has emerged as the best in Class 6A, with the No. 1 team in the Associated Press poll (Clinton), the defending state champion (No. 3 Starkville), No. 5 Warren Central, and perennial contender Madison Central all calling it home.

Throw in a rising Northwest Rankin team and a usually-struggling Greenville squad that has made strides, and it’s clear the Vikings won’t have any easy Fridays for the next seven weeks.

“From top to bottom, it’s going to be tough,” Warren Central coach Josh Morgan said. “It was like that last year, and it’s only gotten better. Which is hard to imagine.”

In 2015, all four Region 2-6A teams that reached the playoffs advanced to the second round. It was the first time that had happened since the state went to six classifications in 2009. Starkville was the first Region 2 team to reach the Class 6A championship game.

A big reason for that streak was South Panola, which won four of the first seven Class 6A championships. But the Tigers (1-4) have struggled this season, at the same time other recent powers like Olive Branch (0-4) and Southaven have dipped a bit.

The result has been a shift in power from the northern half of the state to the middle, where Clinton has Mississippi’s top recruit in quarterback Cam Akers, Warren Central has been on a steady rise, and Madison Central and Starkville have been just plain steady.

“Talent runs in cycles in high school, no doubt. Our region, including the metro area, and those types of schools have gotten better,” Morgan said. “Our district has very good coaches. I guess the talent pool everybody is pulling from and the Little Six Conference has a good bit to do with it, too. Everybody has a good junior high program.”

Northwest Rankin has won the Little Six championship the past two years, and is starting to see that talent bubble up to the varsity level.

Junior running back Cameron Carroll leads the team with 599 rushing yards and seven touchdowns, and junior Montel Gladney (13 receptions, 213 yards, five TDs) is the leading receiver.

Senior quarterback Braden Smith (724 yards and nine TDs passing, and 341 yards and three TDs rushing) is also in his third season as a starter.

“They’ve got the majority of them back,” Morgan said of the Cougars, who also started last season 4-1 before finishing 7-5. “On offense, they’re a spread team and have one of the most dangerous dual-threat quarterbacks there is. He’s electric.”

Traditionally, the Warren Central vs. Northwest Rankin game has been an important one in Region 2-6A. It’s usually either determined a playoff spot — the head-to-head result is the first tiebreaker — or seeding.
The region is deep enough this year that one game might not make or break anyone, once teams start knocking each other off. That, Morgan said, is what will make the next two months of football so much fun.

“The intensity is there every week, and it has to be,” Morgan said. “It’s an exciting run. It’s exciting preparing for it, knowing you’d better be doing everything you can, because week in and week out everybody is playing for the same thing.”