Cutting through the fog, Eric Richards’ throw-in bounced off the leg of Heath Carroll and into the goal, giving the Vikings a dramatic 3-2 win over Madison Central Tuesday night at Viking Stadium.

The win, coupled with Vicksburg’s postponement of its divisional game at Greenville, puts Warren Central (6-8-1, 3-1 Division 3-5A) in first place in the division. Madison Central slips to 1-1 with the loss that came in extra time.

&#8220This kind of puts a monkey wrench into the division,” WC coach Jay Harrison said &#8220It’s still a toss-up because Vicksburg has the potential to beat Madison Central and they’ve already beaten us.

&#8220Tonight, we just played very well. The kids did a fantastic job.”

Madison Central (6-7-1) was hurt by having two players red-carded and sent off the field.

&#8220It’s hard to win when you’re two men down,” Harrison added.

Seth Hudspeth and Rob Heltzel each scored a goal in the first half as the two teams went into the break tied at 2. Homilu Garcia and David McRae scored in the first half for Madison.

After Carroll’s goal, Madison Central had one last chance to tie it but blocks from Cody Massey and Tyler Wing preserved the Vikings’ 3-2 advantage.

(G) Madison Central 5, WC 0.

Defending Class 5A champion Madison Central scored two goals in the first six minutes to take control of both Warren Central and the division.

The second-ranked Lady Jaguars (13-1-3, 2-0) were coming off their first loss of the season at the hands of Tupelo in the final of the Northwest Rankin Tournament on Saturday. They bounced back quickly against WC (10-7, 3-1) with four first-half goals.

&#8220Madison Central is a very good team and they finished their opportunities, and the few that we got, we didn’t,” said WC coach Kristin Gough, whose team lost its fourth straight.

&#8220We played hard, but after a great start, we’ve come back after Christmas and struggled. We’ve just had a very tough schedule.”

Katie Harden scored both of Madison Central’s first two goals after getting set-up kicks off the wings from Heather Robinson and Courtney Alexander.

Robinson later set up Tricia Tillman’s goal with 16:13 left in the first half for a 3-0 lead. The fourth goal came with 4:04 left when Ashlee Curtis caught a spin off and put the rebound just inside the post.

Ramona Forbes had the only goal in the second half.

&#8220Sometimes a loss helps your focus and we seemed to pick things up again,” Madison Central coach Mike Curley said.