Warren Central learned an early-season lesson about how to finish a game Thursday night.

Terry’s Alexis Thornton scored the game-tying goal off a corner kick with 4 1/2 minutes left, allowing the Lady Bulldogs to earn a 1-1 tie and spoil the home debut of new Lady Vikes coach Trey Banks.

“One of the things I saw about last year is that in close games, we’ve had trouble finishing them,” said Banks, who served as an assistant coach for WC last season. “We want to work on this more. We have to learn how to hold on to a lead.”

The Lady Vikes dominated play for 75 of the match’s 80 minutes and outshot the Lady Bulldogs 12-3.

“They had just three shots but two of them were one-on-ones with our goalie and Katie Humphries made the save both times. Terry was very quick on top,” Banks said.

The one save Humphries couldn’t make came on Thornton’s goal. Thornton took the corner and executed a near-perfect arching kick toward Humphries. The WC keeper tried to knock the ball away, but instead batted it into her own net.

WC sweeper Torre Dancyzk said it was frustrating that a good overall game resulted in a draw.

“We played pretty good,” Dancyzk said. “It stinks we had to tie but they made a good goal on us.”

Warren Central (1-0-1) took advantage of Terry’s defensive lapses to get six shots on goal in the first half. On one of the plays, Terry keeper Alden Arnold was out of the box but Mallory Reynolds’ shot from 35 yards out went wide. The half ended scoreless.

Six minutes into the second half, WC posted a score when Taylor Hanes took a throw-in feed from Jessica Hurley and booted one from the top of the box for a 1-0 lead.

Reynolds had a chance to make it 2-0, but her 40-yard shot went just above the bar. Chelsea Duett and Karley Farrell also had good looks but both shots were stopped by Arnold, who ended with five saves.

After Thornton’s goal, Terry had the best chance in the final three minutes to pull out the win. Chi Leven Jones was able to beat the WC defense and got a one-on-one with Humphries. The WC keeper slid into the play and made a game-saving stop.

(B) WC 9, Terry 2

Terry came into Viking Stadium with a 2-0 record, but left with a lopsided loss that left Warren Central coach Greg Head wondering just how good his team can be.

The defending Division 4-6A champs peppered the net with nine goals to smash the Bulldogs. Erik Chappell had three goals, Chandler Bounds scored twice, and Marcus Renner, Tre Wilson, Matt Waddle and Ethan Massey had one goal each. Renner added two assists, while Chappell, Buddy Cook, Wilson and Andres Aquirre had one apiece.

Terry (2-1) got goals from Javone Cole and Tristen Anderson.

Head liked what he saw from his Vikings (2-0).

“We may be better than what I thought,” Head said. “We were just too fast for them up top. We’ve really worked a lot toward building our outside runs and that worked well.”