Warren Central players Valera Vollor (13) and Kelly McGrath (19) fight for the ball with Northwest Rankin’s Julia Larsen during the first half of the Lady Cougars’ 3-1 win on Thursday.(Jenny SevcikThe Vicksburg Post)

[11/21/03]All it took was one 10-minute stretch during the first half for Northwest Rankin to string together a trio of goals. That proved to be the difference in the game as the Lady Cougars defeated Warren Central 3-1 on Thursday night.

“Northwest Rankin is a good team. They played well,” WC coach Kristin Gough said. “We started off a little slow. We had our good moments, but we had some weak points, too.”

Northwest Rankin controlled the pace from the beginning of the game. The Lady Cougars stayed on the offensive for most of the first half.

But the Lady Vikes lit up the scoreboard first when Kristine Fischenich scored a goal on a breakaway just under 18 minutes into the game.

Eight minutes later, Northwest Rankin tied the contest as Mallory Legg lined a kick into the net.

Legg got another chance to score five minutes later, but just missed a header off a corner kick. She got to make up for it quickly when she netted a header again from a corner kick for her second goal of the game with about seven minutes left in the first half.

The Lady Cougars’ flurry continued when Julia Larsch also knocked one in with her head on a corner kick.

“The goals they scored were quality goals,” Gough said.

Warren Central entered the half down 3-1, and both teams played evenly through the second period. The Lady Vikes got a few opportunities late in the game, but couldn’t make them count.

With 32:07 on the clock, Fischenich received a pass in front of the goal, but her kick sailed to the right. Two minutes later, Kari Leiberman received a corner kick from Mary Clare Scurria and booted it over the goal.

The Lady Vikes had one final chance when Leiberman received the ball on a breakaway. Northwest Rankin’s defense closed quickly to force Leiberman to take a difficult angle on her shot and she missed.

“We just couldn’t quite finish,” Gough said. “We had several good opportunities that we missed. We were just a little off tonight.”

The game did provide the Lady Vikes with some learning by experience. Gough said the biggest area of improvement in the next game needs to come with winning balls in the middle of the field.

“From here, this is good for us to go back and look at,” Gough said. “Now we know some things that we need to work on to prepare for next time.”

The Lady Vikes will play again on Monday at 5:30 p.m. as they take to the road to face Florence.