Coaches often talk about winning in all three areas of the game: offense, defense and special teams.

If you are the Vicksburg Gators coaching staff reviewing film Saturday morning, you are about to mark big wins in each area.

The Gators on Friday night — after a sluggish first half — crushed Natchez 41-7 by scoring 41 unanswered points. They improved their record to 4-1 heading into next Friday’s Region 2-5A opener on the road against Germantown.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons. We’ve got weapons all across the board,” Vicksburg running backs coach Lorenzo Breland said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that when you put the ball in their hands, they are going to make a play.”

Friday, those weapons were firing.

The Gators’ special teams recorded a 95-yard touchdown by junior wide receiver Jeff Scott on the second half kickoff. Running back Michael Sims scored three rushing touchdowns. Raheam Moore caught two touchdown passes. Oh, and by the way, the defense extended its shutout streak to eight consecutive quarters.

But while the final score was pretty, the start to the game was not.

The Gators’ offense fumbled the ball on their own 14-yard line on their first drive. It was kicked around and ended up in the end zone, where Natchez recovered it for an early touchdown.

Both teams struggled in the first half, with Vicksburg’s offense failing to mount many drives.

With 3:33 left in the first half, Sims scored his first touchdown to tie it at 7.

“(Natchez) ran a few blitzes in the first half that we hadn’t seen,” Breland said. “We got the chance to go in at halftime and make some adjustments. We told the players at halftime that we want to be a championship team and that we needed to come out in the second half and execute, especially considering the way we had played in the first half.”

And execute they did. The Gators erupted in the third quarter, scoring 28 points to take and then extend their lead.

Quarterback Joe Johnson finished the night 13-of-25 passing for 163 yards, two interceptions and two touchdowns.

The Gators held Natchez’s high-powered offense to just 100 yards on the ground and 74 yards through the air.

“Our pass rush is just relentless. Our front seven is going to get after you every game, every snap,” Breland said. “Coach made some good adjustments at the half, brought up some blitzes they had not seen.”