MONTICELLO — In at least two phases of the game, Vicksburg High made some strides Friday night.

Vicksburg’s special teams executed three successful onside kicks to get back in the game against Lawrence County. The offense came alive in the second half by converting two of the recoveries into touchdowns, then answered a Lawrence County score with a 65-yard TD pass from quarterback Cameron Cooksey to Alvin Stamps.

Still, the end result was a 46-21 loss that dropped the Gators to 0-4.

A leaky defense that allowed Lawrence County to rush for 445 yards and six touchdowns continued to hinder the Gators, who have now lost 14 of their last 15 games as they head into this Friday’s Region 2-6A opener at Memorial Stadium against Grenada (0-4).

Cooksey agreed with his coach, Alonzo Stevens, that their team is not that far away from being a consistent contender in games.

“We’re definitely getting better,” Cooksey said. “We keep trying. We’re doing some good things.”

One of those things is the passing game. Cooksey has thrown for over 100 yards in all four contests. Against Lawrence County, he was 10-of-27 for 179 yards and one touchdown. For the season, he has completed 39 of 101 passes for 594 yards and five touchdowns.

Stamps has become a big-play target with three touchdown receptions of over 50 yards. He had an 80-yarder in the season-opening loss to seventh-ranked Gulfport in the Red Carpet Bowl.

“We’ve shown we can be explosive on offense,” Stevens said. “The offense stepped up again. We got three second-half touchdowns. Our special teams had a great game with two onside kicks to begin the half and then get another one in the fourth quarter.”

Gators kicker Travis Haas executed the kicks, two coming via the pooch variety. He was also 3-for-3 on extra points.

The defense, however, remained a problem. After watching the special teams and offense combine to trim a 20-0 halftime deficit to 20-14, the Gators’ defense held Lawrence County to gains of three yards or less on eight of the first nine plays from scrimmage in the third quarter.

Vicksburg, however, could not overcome a 12 men on the field penalty that gave the Cougars an automatic first down at the VHS 40.

On three more occasions the Gators forced a fourth down, but allowed Lawrence County to convert. One of those was a 16-yard gain by Laquan Hillaird, which led to a 2-yard TD run by Alexander Montgomery later in the drive. Montgomery’s score gave Lawrence County a 26-14 lead.

The Cougars converted another fourth down play on their next drive to set up Hillaird’s 18-yard touchdown run that made it 33-14. Cooksey’s hookup with Stamps brought VHS back to 33-21 and then they got the onside kick with four minutes to play.

Cooksey, however, completed just one of four passes on the ensuing series for one yard. The Cougars capitalized, wearing out a tired Gator defense for two more touchdowns to put the game away.

Cooksey feels the cure for the Gators is pretty simple.

“We need to find that desire to win,” Cooksey said. “That’s what makes it easy to play hard on every down.”