Warren Central wanted John Austin Burris on that wall. It needed him on that wall. And when it came down to it, Burris was the best there was at turning the team’s back line into a brick fortress.

Burris was the backbone of a Warren Central defense that posted 11 shutouts and gave up one goal or less in 16 of 19 games this season. It wasn’t glamorous work. Burris didn’t score a goal this season. But it was essential, and spurred the Vikings to their best record in six seasons.

For anchoring the defense, the senior defender is the 2016 Vicksburg Post boys soccer Player of the Year. It’s the seventh time in eight years that a Warren Central player has won the award.

“I’m ecstatic,” Burris said. “I got a call telling me I got it and thought, ‘That’s great.’ I didn’t think I would get it with all the other great players around.”

Burris has plenty of soccer ability, and could probably be a solid offensive player on some teams. Warren Central coach Greg Head occasionally used Burris as an extra attacker when he shifted to a more offensive-oriented formation in crunch time.

Burris’ main job, however, was to prevent goals and not score them. It was a role he had to come to terms with, but enjoyed once he realized its importance.

“It bothered me the first couple of years,” Burris said of not scoring. “Then as I got older I realized it was something I couldn’t control. I had to be happy with the wins we got and the successes of the team.”

Burris and his defensive teammates Jacob Cochran, Elliott Stockett, Carlos Jesser and Brian McHan had other ways of measuring success. Namely, the shot and goal totals of the opposing team. This season, those were minimal.

The Vikings gave up a total of 17 goals, 12 of which came in losses to Northwest Rankin, Tupelo and Clinton. In nearly every other game, opponents rarely took more than a handful of shots.

McHan, the team’s senior goal keeper, made 134 saves in the 2014-15 season. This year he only had 54, simply because he didn’t have to make as many.

“We had a good little defense this year, and (Burris) was the leader of the defense,” Head said. “We just didn’t get a lot of shots on us. It wasn’t because the teams we were playing weren’t good, It was because we just didn’t give up a lot of shots. And the ones we did give up weren’t quality shots.”

With the defense keeping opponents in check, the Vikings’ offense was able to thrive as well. Opponents pressed harder for goals they knew would be rare, which opened up opportunities to counterattack. Warren Central averaged more than four goals per game.

“The defense definitely kept us in a lot of the big games,” Head said. “When you shut down a good offensive team, you can make good things happen.”

All of it, in turn, led to wins. The team’s 14-4-1 record was its best since the 2010-11 team finished 14-5. The Vikings lost 1-0 to Tupelo in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs in a game Burris said was their best of the season. WC played most of the second half with only 10 men on the field after one of its players received a hard red card.

It was the kind of effort Burris has put in his entire high school career — gritty, hard, perhaps a bit overlooked — and let him walk off the pitch for the last time with a smile on his face.

“I thought we played amazing,” Burris said. “You always want more and to go further. Going as far as we did and playing the game we did against Tupelo, I was satisfied with the season.”