Every team has at least one game per season where nothing seems to go right, which for Vicksburg High might be good news. Maybe it got its stinker out of the way early.

The Gators turned the ball over four times and had more than a dozen penalties in a 33-13 loss to Germantown last week. Now, motivated to put that behind them, they can turn their full attention to a crucial month that will likely determine their playoff fortunes.

Vicksburg (4-2, 0-1 Region 2-5A) hosts Neshoba Central (3-3, 1-0) on Friday night. It’s the first of four consecutive games against teams with .500 or worse records, which could give Vicksburg a chance to make up for last week’s loss and gain some headway in the standings.

“It’s a little motivation because of the stretch we’re in now. Those four, with this week, are very winnable games. It’s at a point now where Neshoba is the next best team on the schedule,” Vicksburg coach Marcus Rogers said. “Four or five in a row, and we’ll be right there in second with Grenada coming in probably undefeated in the district. Then we can do what we need to do. So everything is still there.”

The Gators are trying to find solutions to two problems this week — how to avoid a hangover following the Germantown loss, and how to beat Neshoba Central.

Rogers has taken an aggressive approach to the first. In addition to encouraging his players, he said the team has had a physical approach to practice this week. Instead of running the scout teams against the first-stringers, he’s had the two top units going against each other.

“I’ll be honest, we’ve been going ones vs. ones. I want it full speed,” Rogers said. “(Tuesday) we locked up real good. It’s not traditional that you do that, but we wanted to light some competitive fire again under each other.”

That approach, Rogers added, was in an effort to keep the Gators competitive and keep them from dwelling on last week.

“Just attacking the problems head on, the way we played, and keeping the guys built up. They’re already tore down from the loss, so it’s just motivating them. Sending them motivational texts and videos and getting them in on Sunday,” Rogers said. “You’ve got to attack it as quick as possible. You don’t want it to linger.”

Beating Neshoba Central, meanwhile, has proven more difficult. Neshoba has not won more than seven games in a season since 1993, but has been a thorn in the side of Rogers and the Gators in recent years.

In 2014, the Rockets came into Memorial Stadium and left with a 32-20 win in the season finale. Last year the Gators went to Neshoba — like this season, while coming off a disappointing loss to Germantown — and lost 14-9 to fall to 0-2 in the region.

“They’re not a juggernaut. They run the ball well. Last year, offensively, we had no running game and the quarterback was young. We were up the whole game and threw a pick-six right at the end,” Rogers said.

Neshoba Central uses a Wing-T offense that is part of the problem. The old-fashioned scheme is not used by a lot of teams, and those that run it well often catch opponents off guard. Neshoba had 213 rushing yards in last year’s game against the Gators.

Rogers, though, thinks they’ll be ready this time. He said Vicksburg’s defensive scheme and personnel are the right ones to stop the Wing-T, as long as his own offense can score and avoid turnovers like last week.

“The offense could be difficult, but they have some big offensive linemen and it’s not as effective. Typically, like a Bassfield, they’re smaller, they’re quicker, they can get around and pull. Playing a team like us, when you’re doing all that, we attack. We get downhill and I think we’ll be in good shape,” Rogers said. “Lanier ran a variation of it last year and didn’t do too well against us. Hopefully we get the same result this week with Neshoba. Offensively, we just need to score some points.”

NESHOBA CENTRAL AT VICKSBURG

Friday, 7 p.m.

Radio: 1490 AM and 107.7 FM

Online: For live scoring updates on Friday night, visit twitter.com/vixpostsports and facebook.com/thevicksburgpost