A complete effort by the Warren Central defense and offense paved the way to the biggest home win in three years for the Vikings Friday night at Viking Stadium.

The Vikings defense forced four turnovers, including two inside their own 10-yard line in the first half, while the offense came alive in the second half with four touchdowns to beat Northwest Rankin 28-7 in the Region 2-6A opener for both teams.

Warren Central (2-3, 1-0 Region 2-6A) now sits atop the region standings going into next week’s game at Greenville-Weston. WC coach Josh Morgan could not be happier for his team.

“We had a good game plan and we executed it,” Morgan said. “This was our most complete game of the season. The offensive line did a good job and our young sophomore linebackers, DeArius Christmas and Derrick Thomas, had some magnificent plays for us.”

It was Christmas who helped keep Northwest Rankin (1-4, 0-1) off the board twice in the first half after the Cougars had driven inside the Vikings 10. The first play was an interception at the WC 1 that stopped Northwest’s opening drive of the game. He later recovered a fumble at the Viking 13 with eight seconds left in the half.

Tre’ Prentiss came up big for WC in the second half with two interceptions, the latter, setting up the clinching score with 3:06 left on Curtis Ross’ 5-yard TD run. Prentiss finished with 110 return yards on two punts and one interception.

“We just had to make plays,” Prentiss said. “Tonight, we had the fire in us. We didn’t have it in our last game (Natchez) and that’s not us. We played with high energy.”

After Christmas’ two turnovers kept the game scoreless, the Vikings took control in the third quarter. They opened with a 60-yard march that was capped by a 52-yard pass from Carlisle Koestler to Greg King. Michael Mason’s kick made it 7-0 with 9:32 left in the third quarter.

A sack by Damon Stamps and Andre Voss forced a punt by the Cougars and the Vikings responded by driving to the NWR 13 to set up a 30-yard field goal by Mason but it hooked wide.

It didn’t matter. Prentiss picked off NWR’s Benton Yancey on the next play to put WC back on the Cougars’ 20. Three plays later, King scored on an 11-yard sweep for a 14-0 lead with 1:38 left in the third quarter.

Down two scores, Northwest went for it on fourth-and-four from its own 40. Yancey was sacked by Davonte Hicks for a 10-yard loss.

The Vikings again cashed in with Aaron Stamps taking care of the 35-yard distance on three runs, the last an 8-yarder to make it 21-0 with 10:47 left.

Northwest got its lone score on Michael Morganti’s 2-yard run with 7:34 left. Yancey hit four passes on a 74-yard drive for 28 yards and two personal fouls on WC aided the drive. Yancey finished 10 for 24 for 100 yards and three interceptions.

WC’s Koestler completed 5-of-7 passes for 85 yards and one TD. He also ran twice for 18 yards and showed off some skill running the option.

“I got to run the ball some,” Koestler said with a smile. “Our line did good and Greg made a big play for us on the catch and run.”

Warren Central rushed for 142 yards, led by Aaron Stamps with 106 yards on 22 carries.