JACKSON As the final painful seconds ticked away at Newell Field Friday night, the silence on Warren Central’s sideline said more than words ever could.

The Vikings could only stare in wide-eyed disbelief as Murrah, which hadn’t scored a point against WC in three years and had won only one time in nine games this season, took a knee to complete one of the biggest upsets in Mississippi high school football this season.

Joseph Hawkins ran for a touchdown and threw for 322 yards and three more scores on 25-for-41 passing, and Chris Johnson caught seven passes for 145 yards and two TDs as Murrah (2-8, 1-5 Region 2-5A) beat No. 7 WC 25-22.

“I can’t even explain how this feels,” said Murrah wide receiver Jabary Gipson, who caught 10 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown.

“All season we didn’t come out and play like we did tonight. This is the first time we showed our talent.”

Richmond Fields ran for 153 yards and three touchdowns for the Vikings, but they were playing on their heels all night.

WC (8-2, 4-2) fell behind 13-0 in the first quarter and never got into a rhythm on offense or defense. Hawkins shredded the Vikings’ secondary with a mix of passes that his receivers never seemed to miss.

Murrah had five pass plays of 25 yards or more, with four of them leading to scores.

“I told you they were good,” WC coach Robert Morgan said. “You can ridicule (WC) and beat them up in the paper all you want. If you want to talk about how bad we did, talk about me. It starts at the top.”

WC clawed its way back into the game in the second quarter, scoring on a safety and a 33-yard touchdown run by Fields to cut it to 13-8 at halftime.

WC then took the lead with an impressive drive to start the second half. The Vikings marched 61 yards in eight plays, taking their first lead of the game on Fields’ 7-yard run. A two-point conversion pass was no good, leaving the score at 14-13.

Rather than fold, however, Murrah answered right back with a long drive of its own. Hawkins led the Mustangs down the field, completing 9 of 13 passes on a 72-yard march that included only one running play. Hawkins capped the drive with a 13-yard TD pass to Johnson to put Murrah ahead 19-14.

“We were already in our spread, two-minute offense anyway. It wasn’t like we were going to panic,” Murrah coach Dale Payton said.

Murrah appeared ready to put the game away early in the fourth quarter, but Hawkins was stopped on a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 at the WC 20-yard line.

The Vikings capitalized on the stop, marching the length of the field to regain the lead on Fields’ 3-yard run with 5:43 to play. Ferguson hit Rod Montgomery on a two-point conversion pass to make it 22-19, but Murrah quickly answered again.

Hawkins found Gipson on a deep pass down the middle for 40 yards to the WC 30, then hit Johnson on a crossing route two plays later.

Johnson juked one Viking defender, outran another to get inside the 5-yard line, and stretched the ball inside the pylon for the touchdown as he was finally knocked out of bounds to complete the 25-yard scoring play and give Murrah a 25-22 lead.

The Vikings drove to the Murrah 39 on their next possession, but Morgan elected to punt on fourth-and-9 with about four minutes to play.

The move backfired when Hawkins completed a third-down pass to Gipson to pick up a key first down.

“If it’s 10 yards and you haven’t gotten a down yet, you’ve got to punt,” Morgan said. “If you want to second-guess me and tell me I made the wrong decision, go ahead.”

The scoreboard wasn’t working, so neither team knew exactly how much time was left, but both teams knew the end was near.

Murrah’s bench jumped for joy as the Mustangs on the field hurried to the line for one final kneeldown.