Candis Beard of Warren Central, above left, wins the battle for the ball against Greenville-St. Joe’s Sarah Deangelo Monday night. The Lady Vikes also won the game, 3-1. (The Vicksburg Post/PAT SHANNAHAN)

After a sloppy first half against Greenville-St. Joe Monday night, Warren Central coach Jay Harrison issued a challenge for his team no more goals for their opponents and five goals of their own.

The Vikings failed to meet Harrison’s second goal, but he wasn’t complaining after WC scored four times in the second half, including three goals in the first 13 minutes, to beat St. Joe 7-3.

Chase Grogan had two goals and an assist and five other players scored goals for the Vikings (5-3).

“I just told them You’re playing well, you just have to put the ball in the back of the net,’ and they did that today,” Harrison said. “A lot more of our shots tonight were on goal and a lot more went into the back of the net, and we created them well. There wasn’t anything that was given to us.”

St. Joe (1-4-1) rallied from a two-goal deficit early in the first half to tie the game 3-3 at halftime, but the Vikings came out blazing.

Jake Artman started the barrage by outrunning the defense and booting in a shot from about 10 yards out to give WC a 4-3 lead just seven minutes into the half.

About 2 1/2 minutes later, Ricky Pennington gave the Vikings a 5-3 lead when he blasted a shot into the net from 25 yards out.

Andy Hite capped the outburst by scoring off a corner kick at the 12-minute mark, and Matt Leavell added another goal at the 23-minute mark for a 7-3 lead.

WC’s defense made sure the lead held up by limiting the Irish to just two second-half shots, including one in the first 30 minutes. The Irish also hurt themselves with their mouths. Two starters received soft red cards for profane language and arguing calls.

“Penalties got us down,” St. Joe coach Leta Crawford said. “We’ve got a couple of guys out right now, and the penalties just ate us away. They’ve got attitudes … and they just didn’t feel like a couple of the calls were just.”

Grogan and Nathan Smith hooked up twice in the first 10 minutes to give WC a 2-0 lead. First, Smith threaded a pass to Grogan eight minutes into the game and Grogan blasted it into the net for a 1-0 lead. Two minutes later, Smith hit the crossbar with a shot and Grogan headed in the rebound to make it 2-0.

St. Joe’s Todd McGee scored on a header in the 16th minute to cut it to 2-1, but WC’s Daniel Sumerall banked a shot off the crossbar three minutes later to make it 3-1.

(G) WC 3, St. Joe 1

Warren Central dominated its game against Greenville-St. Joe, but struggled to find the back of the net and won by just two.

The Lady Vikes (5-3-1) scored twice in the first 10 minutes of the game, but couldn’t take advantage of the constant offensive pressure they put on the Lady Irish (1-5).

WC outshot St. Joe 28-8.

“We had some things going, and then there were times when it didn’t seem to work. But luckily, we got some towards the beginning,” WC coach Holly Lane said.

Melanie Mendrop gave WC a 1-0 lead just two minutes into the game when she blasted a shot from 25 yards out past St. Joe goalie Kim Sweet. Candis Beard increased the lead to 2-0 about 7 1/2 minutes later when she knocked a rebound into the upper right corner of the net.

Most of WC’s shots the rest of the way seemed to trickle through rather than hit the goal solidly, however. St. Joe took advantage of it and cut the lead to 2-1 early in the second half.

St. Joe’s Allison Mullin hit the crossbar with a long shot, and when WC goalie Courtney Hubert tried to gather in the rebound, St. Joe’s Sarah DeAngelo knocked it away from Hubert and right back to Mullin, who booted it into the net.

WC pushed the lead back to two goals less than two minutes later, however, on a penalty kick by Alisha Lawrence, and St. Joe never generated any sustained pressure again.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt the better team won tonight at all, but I believe had a couple of things gone our way … we could have been in a position to win the game,” St. Joe coach Chris Lee said.