On the bright side, the Vicksburg Gators never stopped fighting and had a decent offensive night against Germantown when it was all said and done.

On the not-so-bright side, they were down 30 points before any of that happened.

Nick Barnes scored on three long touchdown runs, and Germantown jumped out to a 30-point lead in the second quarter as it beat Vicksburg 58-27 on Friday night.

Vicksburg (1-3, 0-1 Region 2-5A) lost to Germantown (2-3, 1-0) for the fifth consecutive time. Germantown has scored at least 30 points in all five of its victories, and hit that number early this time.

Less than two minutes into the game, Branson Robinson had the Mavericks on the board with a 9-yard touchdown run. Barnes ripped off 47- and 53-yard touchdown runs later in the first quarter, and Charles Jefferson returned a fumble with 1:30 left to make it 27-0.

After a field goal by Lance Dalton midway through the second quarter, the Gators hit two big plays of their own. Levi Wyatt threw a pair of touchdown passes to Cedric Phillips, sandwiched around a Germantown fumble, to pull the Gators within 30-13 with two scores in less than 40 seconds.

Germantown, however, answered with a 40-yard touchdown pass from Colton Gardner to Quavius Thompson with 12 seconds remaining to squash the Gators’ momentum.

Barnes had another long touchdown run of 41 yards early in the third quarter to make it 44-13, and the Mavericks steadily pulled away.

“Maybe we would have had a chance to make something of it, but they kept pounding it at us. They didn’t do anything fancy. They just kept pounding it and we didn’t have an answer for it. They did what they did well, and we’re just not consistent enough,” Vicksburg coach Tim Hughes said.

If there was a bright spot for the Gators, it was a big night and some big plays by quarterback Levi Wyatt. The sophomore through four touchdown passes, all covering 20 yards or more.

Phillips’ touchdown catches went for 20 and 41 yards. Tacarie Stewart hauled in a 41-yarder, and Tyrese Wolfe a 27-yarder. The Gators, however, were too far behind for those highlights to make a difference in the outcome.

“We could throw it around and do a lot of stuff, but if that’s the only thing we’ve got to do because the score is so whatever, they gave up some big plays but then they forced some big plays with bad snaps or blitzes,” Hughes said. “They knew we had to stay in that. We couldn’t get in any tight end personnel and run the ball a little bit like we did last week and make them go back and forth.”