With a minute left in Friday’s game against Madison Central, Warren Central scored a touchdown to pull within three points. The snap on the extra point dribbled back to the holder, and kicker John William Madison kicked a Madison Central player in the helmet as the try was snuffed out.

Madison seemed OK after the game, but the Vikings were not. The bungled extra point try was a fitting end for the night when the Vikings stubbed their toe for the first time, losing 28-25 to Madison Central on homecoming.

“We got the feeling now of what it’s like to lose. We don’t want to feel like that again. We’ve got some more really big games coming up and hopefully we can bounce back from this one,” said Warren Central safety Walt Hopson, who had a 66-yard punt return in the first quarter to set up his team’s first touchdown.

Warren Central (6-1, 2-1 Region 2-6A) lost for the first time this season with a mistake-filled and lackluster performance. It missed two field goals and two PATs, didn’t make a first down on their first five possessions, dropped an interception on a drive that Madison Central (4-3-1, 2-1) then scored on, and fell behind by two touchdowns at halftime.

Jack Walker threw for one touchdown and ran for another for Madison Central, and Gabe Short rushed for 100 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries.

For Warren Central, quarterback Jesse Wilson was 11-of-22 passing for 135 yards, and also ran for 64 yards and two touchdowns. Running back Demarcus Jones rushed for 60 yards and two touchdowns.

“You come across it and had every chance to win,” Warren Central coach Josh Morgan said. “We had a lot of breaks go against us, especially early, so the opportunity was there. You never know how everything turns out, but we’re going to try to use this for a coaching and teaching moment.”

Despite all of its missteps, Warren Central rallied from a 21-6 deficit at halftime to make a game of it. Jones broke off a 45-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter and then added a 1-yard TD run as the Vikings scored twice in 2 ½ minutes to cut it to 21-19.

They never got closer than that.

Wilson couldn’t handle a low snap on the 2-point try following Jones’ second touchdown. Madison missed a 40-yard field goal in the fourth quarter that could have given the Vikings the lead, and then Madison Central stuck in the dagger on the next possesion.

Walker threw an out pattern to Myles Hopson that the wide receiver turned into a 59-yard gain up the left sideline. The catch and run took the ball inside the 20, and fullback Lawson Stockett scored on a 2-yard run a few plays later to put the Jaguars ahead 28-19 with 5:17 left in the game.

“We had them pinned down, third-and-5, and had a chance to get the ball back with plenty of time. That was just one of the many things we didn’t do very well on,” Morgan said.

Warren Central scored once more, on a 2-yard run by Wilson, with 58 seconds left before the extra point try was nixed by the bad snap.

After a failed onsides kick attempt, the Vikings forced a punt and got the ball back with 3 seconds left. They tried to start what appeared to be a multiple-lateral play with a pass over the middle, but Wilson threw low and incomplete to his receiver and it never developed.