It was a tale of two halves for Vicksburg’s offense in a 22-12 victory over Warren Central on Friday.

In the first half, save the masterwork of an opening drive, the Gators were stymied at every turn. Quarterback Cameron Cooksey, who started off the game hot, completed only one of his last seven attempts in the first half. Running back Kawayne Gaston was held to 28 yards.

“That first drive was perfection,” Vicksburg senior wide receiver Milan Nasif said of the 16-play, 85-yard drive. “After that, I guess we got lazy with it. Three three-and-outs in a row. The defense picked us up with some big stops, though.”

With favorite target Alvin Stamps fighting off double coverage and largely held in check, Cooksey struggled to find openings downfield. The longest completion, a 19-yard hookup with Nasif, was the lone bright spot in a half filled with lots of dink and dunk as the Gators led 7-6 at the half.

“I let my mechanics get away from me,” Cooksey said. “But in the second half, I settled down. My o-line played a great game out there tonight.”

After Warren Central took a 12-7 lead off Beau Wallace’s 6-yard quarterback keeper, the big plays multiplied.

Cooksey found Gaston for a 65-yard screen pass on third down and 16 yards to go that totally changed the tenor of the contest. The Gators scored a few plays later.

It was a dagger to the Warren Central hopes.

“That long screen pass on third-and-long was the biggest play of the game,” WC coach Josh Morgan said. “We talked about momentum in this game. We had it, and the screen pass gave them the momentum. We couldn’t get it back.”

The offense put the game out of reach of a struggling Warren Central offense as Cooksey hooked up with Lamar Anthony for a 49-yard pitch-and-catch that nailed shut the coffin.

It was a near-perfect night for the junior quarterback, who is now 2-0 against Warren Central as a starter.

Cooksey had his second game without an interception, completing 12 of 21 passes for 204 yards and one score.

Then Gaston went to work, with 101 second-half yards as he ran hard and took the punishment to the Warren Central defense to grind the clock down. He finished with 128 and two touchdowns and finished with 221 all-purpose yards.

“Kawayne did his thing tonight and that’s all we can ask of him,” Nasif said. “That’s exactly what we needed to run the clock down. We just executed.”

The defense did its part too. The Gators allowed next to nothing after Wallace’s score and intercepted him twice on drives that could’ve gotten the Vikings back in the contest.

The result was the continuation of a four-game winning streak against for the seniors against their archrivals that no Vicksburg High class had ever accomplished before.

“4-0 against them, it feels too good right now,” Vicksburg senior tight end Namonta Gaines said. “We just had to finish. The whole week in practice, it was like, ‘finish, finish.’ We did that.”