Warren Central scrapped a trip to Oxford on Saturday, hastily added a game to its schedule, and wound up taking a loss for all the trouble.

Parker Trawick converted a penalty kick in the 60th minute to give Madison Central a 1-0 victory over Warren Central.

It was only the second loss of the season for the Vikings (9-2), but seemed to be one coach Greg Head could live with. His team played with only 10 men from the 25th minute on after one of his players received a hard red card, yet managed to essentially play the Jaguars (7-2-1) to a standstill.

Madison Central had a 13-7 shot advantage, but only three of its shots were on goal. Trawick’s penalty kick was the result of a handball inside the goal box.

“We went toe to toe with Madison Central,” Head said. “The defense played a great game. We held them to 13 shots, and I don’t think any of them were hard shots. (Keeper) Chase (Graham) hardly had to make any saves.”

Warren Central was originally scheduled to play in a tournament in Oxford on Saturday, but that event was canceled because of the forecast for severe weather across the state. Madison Central instead hosted a doubleheader featuring its game with Warren Central and another against Jackson Prep.

Head was grateful to get a game in against a quality opponent, even if it resulted in a loss. His team has only given up two goals in its first 11 games, and he was happy to get one more go-round in before the long holiday break.

Warren Central won’t play again until it hosts Brandon on Jan. 5, in a makeup game of an earlier rainout.
WC was originally scheduled to play Vicksburg on Jan. 5, but that game has been moved to Jan. 19.

“That’s why we scheduled this game. We wanted to play somebody before the break,” Head said. “We’re trying to get in some better teams before the start of district play.”