[9/13/03]NATCHEZ A full moon over Tom F. Williams Stadium became quite ominous in the second half, but the way things were going for Vicksburg it had to have been more than that.

It seemed like a full moon on a Friday the 13th after a morning of breaking 13 mirrors.

Nothing could really go right for the 19th-ranked Gators Friday night against Natchez, and the Bulldogs minimized their mistakes, tightened up offensively and pulled a shocking 14-12 win Friday night. The win ended the Bulldogs’ 13-game losing streak and was their second win in their last 24 games.

“We just came together, practiced hard this week and said we were going to play four quarters of football,” Natchez senior defensive lineman Anthony Strauder said. “We just stuck together at the end. Everybody is ecstatic, but myself, I’m not shocked. I knew we could do this all along. I’m hoping this win is contagious because Natchez isn’t nothing but a sleeping giant.”

As things continued to not go the Gators’ way as the game went on, the Bulldogs didn’t crack and played perhaps their most complete game in quite some time. They won the turnover battle, blocked well up front on offense, and tackled well at critical times to keep the Gators from taking the lead late.

But to give you an indication of how eerie things were for the Gators, they drove to the Natchez 1 and fumbled. They were intercepted inside the 5. The kicker missed the point after following the first touchdown.

Then it was the double-whammy early in the fourth quarter: James Jackson hit a wide-open Arthur Hicks on what appeared to be a game-winning 57-yard touchdown pass. Officials, however, ruled Hicks stepped out of bounds shortly after the catch and wiped the entire play off for holding in the backfield.

“You just can’t make mistakes,” Vicksburg head coach Alonzo Stevens said. “Natchez has a good ball team, and my hat’s off to Coach Denson. It was a heck of a job they did. We just made too many mistakes too many. That’s the kind of thing that’s been haunting us all year. We just make them make them at inopportune times.”

It was some of those things that happened to the Gators on their last drive when they got it near midfield with 5:35 left.

They dropped a pass on first down, had a holding penalty after getting to the NHS 40 and threw incomplete on fourth down at the NHS 46.

After the Bulldogs punted and put Vicksburg on its own 18, the Gators threw incomplete before a pass from Jackson to Maurice Taylor wasn’t close enough to the sideline for Taylor to get out of bounds before time ran out.