HAZLEHURST — It wasn’t crisp, clean, sharp or particularly pretty. There might even have been a moment or two that were folly-worthy.

It was a win, though, and for right now that’s enough to erase the memories of another Friday night full of drops, penalties and other assorted errors.

Joel Forbes carried the ball 30 times for 142 yards and a touchdown, Travis Bell added 74 yards and another score, and Warren Central finally broke into the win column with a 14-12 victory against Hazlehurst (0-4).

The Vikings (1-3) survived despite giving the Indians two gift touchdowns and committing 63 yards worth of penalties. WC’s defense stopped Hazlehurst twice inside Viking territory in the fourth quarter. Darius Buck’s interception with 34 seconds to play sealed it.

“It might not have been pretty, but we’ll take a win,” WC coach Curtis Brewer said. “Losing is never good for you. They say it’s a character-builder, but sometimes it isn’t. You always have to put the corner block in the house before you can build the rest of it.”

The Vikings took the opening kickoff and drove right down the field for a score and a quick 7-0 lead on Bell’s 6-yard TD run. They missed a field goal later in the period, though, and didn’t capitalize on the early momentum.

Forbes finally made it 14-0 with a 2-yard TD run with 2:43 to play in the first half. Just over a minute later, however, a pass deflected off the hands of Ben Wau Caples and into the hands of Hazlehurst’s Courthney Maxwell, who returned it 65 yards for a touchdown.

Two holding penalties short-circuited a promising drive early in the third quarter, and it resulted in another missed field goal. And then there was the entire fourth quarter, which was just one long nightmare.

On the first play of the period, a punt snap sailed high over the head of WC’s Heath Carroll. It bounced around inside the 5-yard line and was finally recovered by Hazlehurst at the 2. Frederick Fuller punched it in for a touchdown on the next play, then scored on a two-point conversion run, but an illegal procedure penalty negated it. Kynshon Reese was stuffed in the backfield on the second two-point attempt, and the score remained 14-12.

WC had another promising drive stopped in its tracks by a personal foul penalty and failed to pick up a first down on fourth-and-short at the Hazlehurst 46. Another drive netted just one first down before the punt team came on, giving Hazlehurst the ball at its 30-yard line with 1:46 to play.

“It’s hard to recover when you have to fight for every inch you get,” Brewer said. “We’re a great five or six-yard team. We can get five or six yards. We can’t get 10 or 12.”

Two quick passes moved the ball inside WC territory before the defense finally stiffened. After one potential interception was dropped, WC’s Bennie Peoples hit Hazlehurst quarterback Justin Durr as he threw on third-and-10. The ball floated into the arms of Buck, who intercepted it at the WC 29 to seal the game.