A lovely fall day in November allowed soccer teams from Vicksburg, Warren Central and St. Aloysius to get on the field and compete for the first time in more than 10 years Saturday in Bovina.

The three Vicksburg schools, along with visiting Southaven, participated in a Mississippi High School Activities Association approved “Classic” tournament. For St. Aloysius, this was the first time in 10 years they were able to compete against Warren Central and Vicksburg in soccer matches. The series were discontinued after a chippy match between Vicksburg and St. Al boys a decade ago.

History aside, for new Vicksburg High soccer coach Michael Guidry and new St. Al boys coach Scott Mathis, this was the first time their teams were able to face competition.

Guidry comes to Vicksburg High after a two-year stint as an assistant at Ridgeland High School. He liked what he saw from his new team.

“I got to see the system we’ve been working on since July against another

opponent,” Guidry said. “Being my first year, I wanted see how the guys would translate it to the field.”

The translation went well as Vicksburg picked up an 8-1 win in the 60-minute match. Tyler Jackson scored four goals while Will Robbins had a goal and two assists. Garrett Watson had a goal and an assist.

“We did some things well, but we still have a lot of room to grow,” Guidry said.

Mathis, who replaced Jason Hopkins, said his Flashes fielded a young team against an older team in Vicksburg.

“We’ve only had four practices and that was on a short field, and I was just hoping to get my bearings today,” Mathis said. “We started three eighth-graders, two seventh-graders and one ninth-grader.”

The lone St. Al goal was scored by ninth-grader Lofton Varner, who was playing safety for the St. Al football team in a 21-20 win over Mount Olive Friday night.

“He got our goal and then played (goal) keeper in the second half,” Mathis said. “We have a scrappy team full of young players.”

The Vicksburg-St. Al girls match was a far tougher match. The Missy Gators rallied from a 2-0 deficit to take a 3-2 win. McKayla Banks scored all three of the Vicksburg goals.

Vicksburg girls coach Kori Babb said the match allowed her to evaluate a new lineup.

“We’ve switched our formations this season from a 4-4-2 to a 3-5-2 and in the first half, we were pretty confused,” Babb said. “We settled down in the second half and started to play better. I made the change because we need more manpower on defense and we’re still trying to figure it out.”

Vicksburg came back later in the afternoon to beat Southaven 2-1.

For St. Al coach Suzi Channel, the experience of playing two Class 6A teams like Vicksburg and Warren Central will only help her club down the line.

“I thought we played well against Vicksburg,” Channel said. “We were up 2-0, but I think conditioning played a part in Vicksburg’s comeback.”

Warren Central girls’ coach Trey Banks had a mission to find some new scorers this season.

“We lost our big three, (Lindsey) Barfield, (Lindsey) Burris and (Taylor) Hanes from last year and they accounted for 45 of the 63 goals we scored,” Banks said.

With a 3-1 win over Southaven followed by a 3-0 win against St. Al, Banks said his team made strides Saturday. Jessie May, Hailey Tedder and Katie Humphries scored goals in the Southaven match. Macy Joseph, Karah Martin and Jessica Hurley got goals in the St. Al match.

Warren Central boys coach Greg Head said his Vikings are rebuilding after making the Class 6A playoffs two times in the past three seasons.

“Today will help us find a little more depth and we’ll be that much better when we get our three football guys back,” Head said.

WC beat Southaven 2-1 behind goals from Ahstin Greer and Nick Wright.