PELAHATCHIE — For most of the past decade, Vicksburg High has had a veteran starter at quarterback. Three of the last four players to lead the team in passing were three-year starters when their high school careers were finished.

It’s a trend Levi Wyatt seems ready to continue.

The sophomore-to-be completed 22 of 31 passes for 271 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions in the Gators’ spring jamboree against Scott Central and Pelahatchie.

He’ll enter the 2018 season-opener against Oxford with a lot of confidence and the security of knowing he’s got the starting job.

“It’s a lot of things we could have worked on, but it’s the first time playing quarterback and first varsity game,” Wyatt said.

“The first game was kind of bumpy, then we started getting our groove and completing our passes,” Wyatt continued. “We obviously started stepping up and my line started blocking for me. We had a lot of ups and a lot of downs.”

Vicksburg’s playcalling in the jamboree seemed designed to limit the young quarterback’s potential for mistakes. He only attempted six passes in a 14-12 loss to Scott Central, completing five, and the majority of his 25 attempts against Pelahatchie were short routes and screens.

Even so, Wyatt said those high-percentage passes helped get him into a rhythm and bred more success. He was 11-for-17 for 118 yards and a touchdown on the Gators’ last two possessions against Pelahatchie. Both resulted in scores, and lasted a combined 30 plays.

“We did a lot of quick game because they were sending the linebackers. Coach had to find a way to find our game, and I had to find myself, and after that it worked out,” Wyatt said. “The running game was good and then when we started throwing it, it felt like I’d been there before.”Wyatt also showed an ability to come through in the clutch.

Trailing Scott Central 14-6 with 5:25 left in the two-quarter scrimmage, he led the Gators on an 11-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. Along the way he scrambled 15 yards for a first down on fourth-and-8, completed a 23-yard pass to Rashad Flaggs to convert a third down, and threw an 11-yard TD pass to Cedric Phillips on another third down to finish it off, as well as a two-point conversion pass to Robert Wilson.

Wyatt started off a bit shaky against Pelahatchie, but heated up after the Gators fell behind 14-0.

He completed three passes on third down and a 32-yarder on fourth down during a 19-play touchdown drive.

He finished it off with an 8-yard TD pass to Wilson, who caught eight passes for 96 yards against Pelahatchie.

After a fumble gave Vicksburg the ball back with 3:43 left, Wyatt led the team down the field again.

He was 4-for-7 for 67 yards — Wilson caught three of those passes for 58 yards — as the Gators tied it on a 3-yard run by Tacarie Stewart. Wyatt then zipped another two-point pass to Tyrese Wolfe to give the Gators a 16-14 lead. Pelahatchie wound up driving down the field for a touchdown of its own and a 21-16 victory, but it didn’t seem to faze Wyatt.

“We stepped up then. That’s what we needed,” Wyatt said. “The defense did everything they could do. The offense did our job. There’s just certain things we’ve got to work on. It’ll come. Just keep working.”

If there was one area Wyatt struggled in, it VHS head coach Tim Hughes said, it seemed to be trying to do too much when a more conservative approach would have been better.

Wyatt was sacked five times for minus-47 yards against Pelahatchie. Three of the sacks were for losses of 10 yards or more, and one resulted in a lost fumble that set the Chiefs up with a short field and led to a touchdown.

“I loved watching him play, I loved watching him make plays. I was pleased with him,” Hughes said. “There was just times where you don’t need to take a 15-yard sack.”

“You can step up in the pocket and take a 5-yard sack or a 2-yard sack,” Hughes continued. “He’s just got to learn that. He’s trying to make plays, and that’s what I asked him to do, but that’s the maturity of that spot. Once he gets there he’ll learn that and it’ll make him that much better.”

At the end of the day, Hughes added, Wyatt’s ability to make plays atoned for enough of those small missteps to offer optimism about his ability to handle the job next season.

“He made a lot of plays, and that’s what I asked him to do. Yesterday I told him, ‘We’ve tried to teach you certain things and when it’s time to get there, I want you to make plays.’ Now, you’ve got to learn what you’re supposed to be doing as you make plays, but we’ve got to do that and he made a lot of plays,” Hughes said. “He also made a lot of negative plays in managing the game that put us in a bad situation, but he did a lot to get us out of it.”