Warren Central’s Alisha Lawrence and Candis Beard handled the offense early Thursday night against Clinton, and Courtney Hubert and the Lady Vike defense did the rest in a 1-0 win.

Lawrence scored the game’s only goal on a short shot off a cross from Beard just five minutes into the game and Hubert made it stand up by stopping all 18 shots she faced for the shutout.

“This is huge. We hadn’t won a home game all year, so we really needed a win to boost our confidence,” Hubert said.

Clinton (5-1) actually outshot the Lady Vikes (4-3-1), 18-11, but couldn’t sneak one by Hubert. She snared several tricky bouncing shots, a couple of rockets and stopped Clinton’s Kristin Meeks cold on a penalty kick 30 minutes into the first half.

After Clinton pressured and got four shots in the first 10 minutes of the half, Maryam Haque, Amie Jones, Melanie Mendrop, Alex Henley and Lyn Strawn teamed up to form a wall about 20 yards from the goal, and Clinton managed only one shot the next 20 minutes.

“They were definitely doing well. And the thing that was good was they would win the ball, but still pass it to someone on the team,” WC coach Holly Lane said.

The Lady Vikes had just seven shots in the second half, most of them in one sustained rush around the 30-minute mark.

Clinton made one last run. An offsides call negated a two-on-one chance and a possible goal at the 24-minute mark, and Hubert and the WC defense stopped a series of rushes in the last 10 minutes.

“It was very frustrating … We felt like we had plenty of opportunities tonight, though, and just couldn’t finish,” Clinton coach Thomas Bobo said.

(B) Clinton 4, WC 1

Warren Central had more shots and plenty of opportunities, but Clinton made better use of its chances to win a match that saw 11 yellow cards handed out.

Adam Burns and Daniel Webb staked Clinton to a 2-0 halftime lead with one first-half goal each, while Drew Zeigler added a penalty kick 16 minutes into the second half and Brian Bledsoe finished off the Vikings with a four-on-one breakaway at the 26-minute mark.

Andy Hite scored WC’s only goal on a penalty kick at the 37-minute mark of the second half.

“… (W)e knew coming in here that we were up for a tough test, because this is a tough place to play … That was the best game we’ve played all year long,” said Clinton coach Jeff Long, a former WC girls coach.

WC outshot Clinton 14-11, but missed several chances when corner kicks went high or passes found a seam, but their targets were a step behind.

“We didn’t play well tonight. We didn’t knock the ball around as well as we should have,” WC coach Jay Harrison said.

It was physical throughout, and Harrison said the numerous cards and whistles disrupted the flow.

Clinton received seven yellows, most of them for hard fouls, while the Vikings received four, including one on Harrison.

“That’s a lot of cards to give. He was calling some light stuff … But it’s not his fault. You’ve got to play the game and if they call it that way, they call it that way,” Harrison said, adding that his card was the result of a misunderstanding with an official over a substitution.

“I never said anything to him, I didn’t cuss him or nothing like that,” Harrison said. “I’m embarrassed for myself and the kids and the school. I’ve tried to tell the kids for the last two years, Keep your mouth shut,’ and then I turn around and do something stupid like that. I’ve got to do better.”