For one half, Warren Central went toe-to-toe with perennial power Brandon. By the end of the second half, it was the victim of a technical knockout.

Hannah Bailey scored two goals, Bailey McCarver and Laura Quintero added one apiece, and Brandon (10-1-3) scored twice in an 11-minute span sandwiched around the halftime break to blow open a close game against the Lady Vikes (7-5-2).

After Bailey gave Brandon a 1-0 lead with her goal in the 12th minute, WC’s Lindsey Barfield bounced a long, 40-yard shot into the net to tie it in the 23rd minute. The Lady Vikes controlled the action for the next 20 minutes, but couldn’t capitalize.

Barfield’s goal was the only shot they put on net in the first half, and with less than two minutes to go McCarver banged in a high cross near the goal to give Brandon a 2-1 lead. In the ninth minute of the second half, Bailey scored on a 30-yard free kick to make it a two-goal lead.

Quintero got her goal in the 23rd minute of the second half to make it 4-1, and the Lady Bulldogs cruised from there. They outshot Warren Central 18-2 in the game.

“(WC) definitely picked up the intensity and pressed us more. It took us a little while to adjust to the pressure they were putting on us,” Brandon coach Celeste Bramlett said.

Despite the statistical dominance, WC coach Trey Banks said there were some positives his team could take from the loss. That’s important for more than morale, too. The Lady Vikes play two division games against Vicksburg and Greenville-Weston on Friday and Saturday.

“That’s the No. 2 team in the state of Mississippi, and in the first half, we played with them. We saw a lot of good things,” Banks said. “After we scored, for the next 20 minutes we controlled the game. We need to find the positives, find the things that worked and prepare us for Friday.”