Warren Central looked like a champion and played liked a championship contender as it began its playoff run.

Jordan Polk scored three goals, and the Lady Vikes made quick work of South Panola by scoring three times in the first 15 minutes en route to a decisive 6-1 victory in the first round of the MHSAA Class 6A girls’ soccer playoffs on Tuesday.

“We knew we needed to come out strong and hard. We couldn’t let down and we couldn’t come out easy. We needed to make sure we got in and put the game away,” Polk said.

After going 19 years between playoff wins, Warren Central (17-5-1) advanced to the second round for the second year in a row. It’ll host Neshoba Central (14-5-3) on Saturday. The game time has not yet been set.

Neshoba Central beat Center Hill 3-2 in another first-round game on Tuesday. The Lady Rockets split two regular-season meetings with Warren Central.

The Lady Vikes won their second Region 2-6A championship in a row this season. After making it to the Class 6A semifinals in 2024, coach Jeremy Lawrence said this year’s team has a lot more confidence.

“Once you break that barrier it makes you feel that comfortable feeling. Like we can do that, we can get there,” Lawrence said. “We prepared well coming into the game and we knew we were going to do well. I could just tell it by the girls and how we approached the game that we were going to do well.”

They did well right from the start.

Polk converted a penalty kick in the sixth minute, following a handball in the box, and then Brooke Steed scored in the 10th minute and Melissa Herrle in the 15th to stake the Lady Vikes to a 3-0 lead.

Polk scored again in the 33rd minute, and completed her hat trick just on the other side of the halftime break, in the 45th minute.

“It gives us a pump of momentum. But when some teams get up like that they drop their heads. We had to make sure we didn’t do that,” Polk said of the fast start.

WC’s final goal was credited to Kennedy Smith, when she took a corner kick that was deflected into the net by South Panola’s keeper late in the second half.

Steed finished with a goal and two assists, and Laney Bull also had an assist.

Smith and Bull were among a half-dozen freshmen who saw the field Tuesday as Lawrence took the opportunity to clear his bench for most of the second half. He said that was a program-building benefit the Lady Vikes did not often get in previous years when they had to scratch and claw for postseason success.

“That’s one thing we’ve never really been able to do here is have younger players get exposure in playoff-style games,” Lawrence said. “Emotions are higher and there’s so much more at stake. I was glad that we had the ability to do that. Going out here and winning the game as quickly as we did, I’m glad we were able to get those other girls some time.”