MONTICELLO — Comebacks are great, but the reason why the Warren Central Vikings fell three touchdowns behind in the fourth quarter at Lawrence County is a cause of immediate concern for coach Josh Morgan.

Lawrence County (1-1) rushed for 310 yards and four touchdowns in Friday night’s 29-27 win over the Vikings. Tailback Alexander Montgomery, who had just one carry in the first half, ran for 161 yards on 13 totes in the second half.

Why such success? It’s because the Vikings are very young on the defensive line.

“Absolutely it’s our biggest concern. We have guys who haven’t played much football there. Tonight, we tried to move in some offensive linemen in there, but that just tires them out. Right now, we’re just outmanned on the defensive line. Our best hope is try and blitz our linebackers,” Morgan said.

The Vikings were able to stunt linebackers Austin Roberts and Tyler Comans to good effect at times. The result was five tackles for loss, and it was key in denying the Cougars two scoring chances inside the Viking 5-yard line in the first half.

But in the second half, the Cougars were able to line up and run right at the Vikings. Lawrence County came into the game advertised as a spread team, but wound up throwing just one pass. They ran out of an I-formation and pounded WC.

Fortunately for the Vikings, the Cougars had fumble problems and lost the ball twice in the fourth quarter to set up easy Viking scores that gave them a chance to tie the game.

WC senior quarterback Beau Wallace led the Viking comeback from a 29-7 deficit. He threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Shon Jackson and then a 12-yard score to Malcom Grant. A two-point pass to Louis Carson made it 29-21.

When Comans got his second straight fumble recovery at the Cougar 15, the Vikings struck again — this time on Jackson’s 8-yard TD run. Down two at 29-27 with 1:29 left, the Vikings had to go for two. Jackson got the ball, but came up a foot short.

“We tried to overload and they responded by over-loading as well. We didn’t win that battle. It was big against big and they won it,” Morgan said.

Lawrence County coach Mike Davis was just glad to see his defense step up.

“I couldn’t tell what we did right on that play. I guess we just matched up well,” Davis said.

The Cougars’ coach, however, was not happy with the four lost fumbles that aided WC’s fourth-quarter comeback.

“Turnovers will do it to you every time. They were able to capitalize on that momentum,” Davis said.

Wallace and his offensive mates deserve that credit.

“We fixed some stuff and got it kicked in. We just were too sluggish in the first half,” Wallace said.