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Warren Central's Garrett Orgas (15) celebrates with his teammates after returning an interception 54 yards for a touchdown in a 21-3 victory over Germantown on Friday. (Waller Frazier/For The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central's Garrett Orgas (15) stiff-arms Germantown's Traeden Stevenson (7) on his way to a 54-yard interception return touchdown in the second quarter of Friday's game. (Waller Frazier/For The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central defensive back Roosevelt Harris (22) tracks down a Germantown ball carrier during Friday's game at Viking Stadium. (Walter Frazier/For The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central running back Eric Collins Jr. crosses the goal line on a 67-yard touchdown run Friday vs. Germantown. Collins finished with 106 yards and one touchdown on 18 carries as the Vikings won 21-3. (Waller Frazier/For The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central quarterback Nash Morgan (10) throws a pass as Germantown linebacker Aiden Lenoir (15) closes in. (Waller Frazier/For The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central assistant coach Shane Quimby, right, holds up a towel to shield offensive coordinator Rob Morgan from view as he signals in a play against Germantown. (Waller Frazier/For The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central defensive end Larry Reynolds (23) tries to work around a Germantown offensive lineman during Friday's game at Viking Stadium. (Waller Frazier/For The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central football players including Zack Evans (0) and Larry reynolds (23) celebrate after teammate Garrett Orgas returned an interception for a touchdown in a 21-3 victory over Germantown on Friday. (Walter Frazier/For The Vicksburg Post)

Warren Central didn’t have a lot of yards Friday night, but when they got them they came in big chunks.

Eric Collins Jr. scored on a 67-yard run, Zack Evans caught a 75-yard touchdown pass, and Garrett Orgas returned an interception 54 yards for a TD to lead the Vikings to a 21-3 victory over Germantown.

“It was a game we had to be perfect in all aspects to move the ball. The first half was low scoring and the second half we kind of opened up and got more scoring,” said Evans, who finished with four receptions for 87 yards.

The touchdowns by Collins and Evans accounted for 142 of Warren Central’s 236 yards of total offense. The defense picked up the slack, however, with a virtual shutout of a team that averaged more than 40 points in its first two games.

The Vikings had 10 pass breakups and two interceptions while holding Germantown (1-2) to 278 total yards. Germantown’s only points came on a 31-yard field goal by Hayden Houpt following a fumble in WC territory. The Mavericks had a chance to punch in a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, but Warren Central’s defense stopped them at the 1-yard line.

“We’ve seen what they can do and we made them look not like what we’ve seen. So I’m super proud of them,” Warren Central coach Josh Morgan said. “I thought we were very focused tonight and played as a unit. That’s what we do best.”

The game was scoreless until late in the second quarter, when a deflected pass was intercepted by Julien Demby. The senior linebacker returned it 50 yards for a touchdown, but it was wiped off the board by an illegal block on Orgas.

On the next play from scrimmage, Collins broke through the middle and up the right sideline for a 67-yard touchdown and a 7-0 Warren Central lead.

Collins finished with 106 rushing yards on 18 carries.

“You give it to E.J. enough times and he’s going to get one,” Morgan said. “You’ve got to continue to block. He runs hard, is a very dynamic player and very elusive. He’s an explosive playmaker.”

Collins made Orgas’ penalty irrelevant, but Orgas atoned for it on his own on the next series.

On first-and-10 from the WC 39, Germantown quarterback Jackson Hood dropped the snap, rolled to his left and tried to throw the ball away. It floated right into the arms of Orgas, who had a clear path to the end zone for a touchdown.

“We had a pick-six that got called back right before that because of my penalty. I felt bad, because I thought I cost us a pick-six. Just for that to happen is stuff you dream about,” Orgas said.

Warren Central’s last touchdown came on the opening drive of the third quarter. After a false start penalty backed the Vikings up to their 25-yard line, Maddox Lynch underthrew a pass to Evans along the left sideline, but Evans adjusted well and caught it as the defender fell down.

The speedy receiver took it the rest of the way untouched for a 75-yard TD and a 21-0 lead.

“Last week I had a couple of drops, and the first thing I knew was I had to catch it. The ball came up and I made a play on it,” Evans said.

The three big-play touchdowns came in a span of six minutes on the game clock and turned a tense game into a foregone conclusion. Although Germantown scored in the second half and had a chance to punch in a touchdown, it never threatened to get back in the game.

“Having a big play called back, and then having a big play and piling right on top of that gave us some momentum and I don’t think we ever lost it,” Morgan said.

About Ernest Bowker

Ernest Bowker is The Vicksburg Post's sports editor. He has been a member of The Vicksburg Post's sports staff since 1998, making him one of the longest-tenured reporters in the paper's 140-year history. The New Jersey native is a graduate of LSU. In his career, he has won more than 50 awards from the Mississippi Press Association and Associated Press for his coverage of local sports in Vicksburg.

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