As Warren Central hits the first significant milepost of the season, it’s about both the journey and the destination.

The Vikings are certainly pleased to be 3-1 after navigating a difficult non-region schedule, and heading into a bye week and next week’s Region 2-6A opener coming off a big victory over Neville (La.). The route there hasn’t always been smooth, but it has exposed them to some adversity and a number of situations that they hope will pay dividends later on.

“The more you see, the better,” Warren Central coach Josh Morgan said. “I’m very pleased with our record. I’m very pleased with our success. The idea of it is to win while you learn. So the more you see, and we’ve been through some trial and error stuff and some different situations, so all that’s good.”

Although the Vikings are a handful of plays away from being undefeated, there is still plenty to work on during the bye week. They’ve been their own worst enemy at times, with ill-timed penalties and sluggish stretches mixed in with periods of stellar play.

In last week’s 17-7 win over Neville, for example, the Vikings jumped out to a 10-0 lead 5 ½ minutes into the game and then had two touchdowns negated by penalties. A fumble inside the 5-yard line ended another likely scoring drive, and a penalty by the defense on a fourth-down stop helped Neville score its only touchdown.

The week before against Vicksburg, Warren Central only had 85 yards in the first half before getting it rolling in the second and winning 35-7. The Vikings were also scoreless at the half before blowing out Clarksdale 28-3 in the Red Carpet Bowl.

It was the opposite in a 28-21 loss at No. 1 Pearl, when WC jumped out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter and then didn’t score again.

Morgan has said some of those mixed results are to be expected with a young team replacing 18 of 22 starters from last season, and was pleased that they’ve been able to have success while working through it. With the region schedule now looming, however, he also said it’s time for players and coaches to get on the same page and clean up the mistakes before they become too costly.

Three of the Vikings’ seven opponents in Region 2-6A have already been ranked at some point in the Associated Press Class 6A poll.

“It’s good that we’re able to fight through it and handle adversity. We don’t need any more adversity,” Morgan said. “We need to be a lot sharper and a little bit cleaner. We’ve got to pick our guys’ execution level up, because us as a (coaching) staff is throwing more at them. So we have to make sure we’re on the same page so we can be sharper and stay away from penalties and being self-destructive.”

While the mistakes early in the season might have kept the Vikings from realizing their full potential, they’ve also been oddly encouraging. Getting to 3-1 without playing their best football shows that there could be great days ahead when they do.

“It says we’ve got a great team. We can overcome the penalties and the flags,” said senior safety Walt Hopson, who had an interception against Neville and another for Pearl that he returned for a touchdown.

And, in fact, the Vikings have played well more often than they’ve tripped over their own feet. The mistakes against Neville never seemed to put the game in doubt, they just kept Warren Central from turning it into a blowout.

The Vikings rolled up 239 rushing yards and kept the Tigers from crossing midfield on five of six possessions in the second half. Neville’s only snaps on the plus side of the 50 came on a drive that started at the WC 45-yard line.

“It was a big win against a very good program. I thought we were the ones setting the tone and dictating, which we talked a lot about this week,” Morgan said. “Setting the tone and going after them, and being really aggressive in our playcalling on both sides of the ball. It helped us jump out. We really got after them the first half. I’m proud of how we came out here and executed.”

If anything, Morgan added, the flow of last week’s game will help the team by showing it how to grind out a win.

“We’re going to get into these games in the district, too, these tight ballgames, these low-scoring ballgames. It was good to see us win a low-scoring affair and have to play defense all night long with little room for error,” Morgan said. “We got a couple of turnovers and got after the quarterback really well against a really good O-line that doesn’t give up too many sacks.”