Alligator season in Mississippi opens Friday, which seems appropriate for the two-legged, football helmet-wearing species living on Drummond Street. The Vicksburg Gators are spending this week dodging traps.

The Gators are coming off a big win in a highly hyped game last week over Wayne County. They’ve got Warren Central coming into Memorial Stadium next week. This Friday, they play a Terry team that hasn’t had a winning season in a decade.

How well the Gators handle all of those potential pitfalls might wind up being a better indicator of how their season will go than their win over the defending Class 5A champions in last week’s opener.

“These kids have a goal, and we have a team goal, that we want to play in December,” Vicksburg coach Marcus Rogers said. “So we’re not going to let that we got a big victory the other night deter us from what we’re trying do. We’re trying to get to the next level, so next level teams come to play every week.”

The Gators put nearly 10 months of work into the Red Carpet Bowl game against Wayne County, and it paid off. They rushed for 151 yards and three touchdowns as a team, and held the War Eagles to one score over the last 3 ½ quarters. There was even a botched field goal attempt and a couple of missed connections on deep passes that could have turned a comfortable 35-20 victory into a true blowout.

The win came at a price, though, which was mental exhaustion.

“There was a long preparation, and a long, intense program we put them on since last November. We knew what type of opponent we had coming in,” Rogers said. “I gave them off Sunday because they were so mentally drained, and I’ll be honest with you it took its toll on me. The last couple of weeks I barely slept, just watching film and trying to get tendencies and get everything together and get as next to perfect as possible.”

Another casualty of the win was the near destruction of the turf at Memorial Stadium. Rain turned it into a mud pit, and two games in one night chewed it up. Divots and holes are all over the field. Vicksburg has three consecutive home games to start the season, and plays five of its first seven there, meaning there’s little time to repair it.

“It’s terrible. It proves why both schools need the turf,” Rogers said, taking an opportunity to lobby for artificial surfaces at both his school and Warren Central. “We can’t control the weather, but one thing we can control is that turf, and it’s a better value. We have seven home games, and six left, and that field looks like that? It’s going to be hard on us. There’s a lot of holes out there and the dirt is hard.”

The Gators, though, need to put all of that aside and pivot to the rest of the season. It starts with a Terry squad that hasn’t finished above .500 since 2006, but did win its season-opener 28-7 over Raymond last week.

“They’re athletic. They scored 28 last week against Raymond, and then they scored 35 in a half in the jamboree against Richland,” Rogers said. “They look like the type of team, if you let them hang around they’ll beat you. So what we’ve got to do is go out and establish a tempo early and set a tone, and get another ‘W.’”

A win over Terry would give the Gators their third 2-0 start in four seasons. A big win would send them into the rivalry game against Warren Central with a ton of momentum and even more hype for what is expected to be a good year for the program.

Reining in the hype is a challenge, Rogers admitted, but one he hopes is one he’s dealing with all season long.

“It is one of the harder games of the year, because it’s my job as a head coach to keep these kids grounded, make sure they’re not reading newspaper articles and listening to the people around the building telling them how good they are,” Rogers said. “One thing I don’t mind is trying to keep them grounded after a win. I’ll take that win any day.”

FRIDAY’S AREA GAMES

All games start at 7 p.m.

Warren Central at Pearl (Radio: 105.5 FM)

Terry at Vicksburg (Radio: 1490 AM and 107.7 FM)

Glenbrook at Porters Chapel (Radio: 104.5 FM)

St. Aloysius at Pisgah (Radio: 101.3 FM)

Sharkey-Issaquena at Marvell Academy

Central Hinds at Brookhaven Academy

Rebul Academy at Kemper Academy

Port Gibson at Independence

Ridgeland at Clinton

• For live scoring updates on Friday night, visit twitter.com/vixpostsports, or facebook.com/thevicksburgpost/