Warren Central will make the long trek north Tuesday for playoff soccer.

The Lady Vikes and Vikings head to DeSoto Central for first-round Class 6A playoff matches with the Jaguars. The girls’ match is set to start at 5:30 and will be followed by the boys.

Unlike most first-round matches, both WC teams are familiar with DeSoto Central. The Lady Vikes (11-8-2) beat DeSoto 3-1 in the season opener in Vicksburg. The Vikings (14-5-2) tied the Jaguars 1-1.

The Lady Vikes are led by senior Lindsey Barfield with 12 goals and nine assists. Taylor Hanes has scored 12 goals and assisted on four.

WC coach Trey Banks said that first encounter with DeSoto (14-4-3) will help prepare his team. DeSoto is led by Alex Jones with 19 goals and four assists. Leslie Zielke has 13 goals and seven assists.

“It helps because we know who their playmakers are,” Banks said. “We’ve already beaten them 3-1. But, like I told my team after the Clinton game, everything is back to zero.”

Warren Central lost to Clinton 3-0 Friday night, but the result was enough to win a tiebreaker with Vicksburg and get the second seed from Division 3-6A. Clinton will host Horn Lake.

Lady Vikes keeper Katie Humphries said making the playoffs was a big goal for her team. She did her part by making 123 saves this season.

“Our main goal was to beat Vicksburg and make the playoffs,” Humphries said. “Now, we get to play a team we’ve already beaten. But I look for them to be very tough.”

The Warren Central boys fought through a season-long rash of injuries to reach the playoffs. Sweeper Alberto Capeleto was held out of the Vikings’ 2-1 loss to Clinton on Friday night.

That result was good enough to make Vikings coach Greg Head optimistic about his team’s chances in the postseason.

“We just played the No. 2 team in the state a great game and we were without two sets of defenders,” Head said. “A lot of the things we did against Clinton was preparing us for DeSoto Central. I think we can make a real good run in the playoffs.”

DeSoto Central is paced by Cody Moore’s 12 goals.

Warren Central is led by senior Chandler Bounds with 16 goals and 12 assists. Ahstin Greer got his 14th goal of the season against Clinton.

Goal keeper Baxter Richardson had 12 saves against Clinton to boost his season total to 86.