Marc Grace might have been the busiest man in Warren County Tuesday night.

The Vicksburg goalkeeper capped a solid performance with 22 saves, including one on a penalty kick, but it was only enough to put a small dent in an unrelenting Warren Central attack. The Vikings peppered Grace with shots all night and broke open a close game with four second-half goals to beat Vicksburg 5-0 at Memorial Stadium.

Grace prevented the score from ballooning even higher with save after save on a night when Warren Central penetrated the Gators’ defense with relative ease.

“You can tell we’ve been on break. We just could not finish,” WC coach Greg Head said. “The wet grass has a lot to do with it, but being off for three weeks, we were just a little rusty when it came to finishing.”

That rust seemed to fall off pretty quickly when, in the waning minutes of the first half, Grace fouled Warren Central forward Nick Wright with a hard challenge in the box for a penalty kick. The senior was able to dive in front of Wright’s ensuing shot, but Hunt Holdiness cleaned up the deflection to put the Vikings up 1-0 and open the floodgates.

“Marc did great,” Vicksburg coach Michael Guidry said. “He came out a little hard on that one challenge, but he controlled his box and played a great game.”

Warren Central erased Grace’s heroic performance, however, with the four second-half goals. Braylen Greer buried a put-back to expand Warren Central’s lead soon after the start of the second half, while Hank Holdiness scored twice — once on a volley off a chip, the other after finishing on a through ball behind the Gators’ defense late in the game.

Max Warnsley rounded out the scoring barrage with a volley of his own in the second half.

The score could have been worse had it not been for Grace’s play at keeper and a bevy of missed shots and mishandles in the box by Warren Central.

“We were moving the ball down the field, working the ball well, penetrating the defense, but we just could not finish,” Head said. “We’ve got to learn to finish, but I was proud of the guys.”