[02/02/02]For six Vicksburg High seniors, the thought of losing in this year’s playoffs bites deep.

It has never happened before.

The Missy Gators (16-2), who opened the Class 5A playoffs with a 3-1 win over Oak Grove, have not lost a playoff game since the group of seniors were freshmen.

They won a state championship as freshmen, missed the playoffs as sophomores, and claimed the title again as juniors. Three more wins and this group will leave VHS with a 12-0 playoff record and three championship rings.

“It would be so awesome if I could say that we never lost a playoff game,” center/halfback Beth Ashby said. “That’s all I think about on the field is one more game, then one more and one more and we win the state championship.”

The Missy Gators are so familiar with being in the title game that the year they didn’t make it, one coach said it didn’t feel the same without them there, VHS coach Kevin Manton said.

“We have to play and have to play well,” Manton said. “If we are that much better, I want us to prove it. Every time we step on the field, we have to make a statement.”

The second obstacle in the four-game road to the championship is set for today at 1 p.m. against Biloxi, a 2-1 winner over Long Beach on Tuesday.

“I’m hoping they won’t be the strongest team we’ve faced,” said Beatty, who along with Ashby, Neely Nasif, Leanne Feibelman, Cassie Griffing and Charlsie Bufkin will be on the field at VHS for, at best, two more games.

Biloxi eighth-grader Jeana Erickson leads the Lady Indians with 17 goals. The 5-foot, 5-inch speedster is in the Olympic Development Program. She netted the game-winner against Long Beach.

“She’s an eighth-grader, but she doesn’t play like one,” Manton said.

Stopping Erickson will rest in Ashby’s hands. The midfielder said she’d do anything possible to throw Erickson off her game.

“I want this really bad,” Ashby said. “If it takes me staying with her the whole game, then that’s fine, I’ll step up and play.”

Brandi Parker, Class 5A’s leading scorer with 33 goals, netted two in the win against Oak Grove, both on assists from Brandi Head.

Several Missy Gators are nursing injuries, though, and Manton has limited several players’ practice times. He doesn’t foresee a problem.

With a win today, Vicksburg will host in the South State championship game on Tuesday against the winner of the Clinton-Gulfport game.

“I feel some more pressure,” Beatty said. “It’s like, we’re in the playoffs so we have to win state.”