[10/14/03]One month ago, the world seemed to be crashing down around Warren County’s football teams.

Warren Central was 1-2 and coming off a 33-9 loss to South Pike, while Vicksburg High lost to woeful Natchez on the way to a 1-3 start. To hear some tell it, both the Vikings and the Gators were heading for an early end to the season.

Fast-forward a few weeks, and the only thing they seem to be heading for is the playoffs.

WC has rallied behind its defense to win four straight games, while VHS has won three straight. The winning streaks have both teams standing at 3-0 in Region 2-5A play and smiling a lot wider than they were in the middle of September.

“Fans get kind of itchy, and expectations are one thing, but to play and get better is what we’re looking for,” VHS coach Alonzo Stevens said. “It’s never how you start off. It’s how you finish.”

A strong finish is what propelled the Gators to their recent three-game spurt.

Trailing 24-7 to Grenada with 6 minutes to play, VHS stormed back to win 27-24. The Gators followed that up with wins over Clinton and Forest Hill to join WC as the only undefeated teams in the region.

An emphasis on defense and the running game have helped the Gators. VHS has rushed for more than 500 yards. In last week’s 23-0 win over Forest Hill, 10 different backs totaled 319 rushing yards.

In that same span, the Gators have attempted only 12 passes. In their first five games, they threw the ball 102 times.

“We know we can throw the football,” Stevens said. “I was looking at the stats, and all of these teams have one guy … We’re getting that total balance of a good team.”

Although there was some hand-wringing about the sluggish start, it wasn’t unprecedented. After four games last year the Gators were 2-2, but they won six of their last seven regular-season games to finish second in the region.

“It seems like we’re running that trend right now, but it might be because of who we’re playing,” Stevens said, noting that VHS’ non-division schedule the last two years has included the likes of Wayne County, South Pike and Brookhaven.

At Warren Central, there was never any concern after losses to McComb and South Pike. Games against weaker teams from Natchez, Forest Hill and Greenville all shutout wins for the Vikings helped build confidence and speed the maturing process of a young team.

By the time the Vikings played a tough region game against Madison Central last week, the tough losses of September seemed to be a distant memory. WC intercepted four passes and recorded a safety in the fourth quarter, and junior tailback Larry Warner ran for 204 yards and a touchdown in a 19-7 win.

“I think our intensity has picked up,” WC coach Robert Morgan said. “It’s hard to play football if you’re not quite sure what you’re doing. We’re playing more instinctively now.”

Like his counterpart, Morgan said part of the start came from playing good teams. WC’s two losses were to McComb and South Pike, which have a combined record of 11-3.

Morgan added that he was hesitant to proclaim the Vikings’ winning streak a turnaround. He feels it is just part of the process of a young football team coming together.

“I don’t know if you can call it a turnaround,” Morgan said. “They played hard and and loose in those two (losses), and the mistakes they made were because of hustle.”