Warren Central’s season came down to one desperate, wacky play. One chance to salvage everything its players and coaches had worked for the past year.

Amongst the dozen or so laterals, there were a couple of moments where the impossible did seem possible. Where everything would indeed work out in the end. Then the ball hit the turf, and then a knee, and then everyone else, in a mix of exhaustion and emotion, until bodies were strewn across the field like confetti.

Once again, fate was not on Warren Central’s side. It lost, in heartbreaking fashion on its home field in the second round of the Class 6A playoffs, for the second consecutive year.

This time it was Madison Central sticking in the knife, as Jimmy Holiday threw an 11-yard touchdown pass to Luke Robertson with 17 seconds left for a 28-26 victory over the Vikings.

Madison Central (11-2) advanced to the North State championship game — it will play at Starkville next week — for the third year in a row and the eighth time in 10 seasons. Warren Central (9-4) still has not been there since 1994.

“It’s just gut wrenching,” Warren Central coach Josh Morgan said.

Warren Central overcame three early turnovers and a two-touchdown deficit to take a 26-21 lead on a 19-yard touchdown pass from F.J. Barnum to Demond Patton with 4:44 left in the third quarter.

The early mistakes came back to haunt the Vikings, however. A fumble deep in their own territory set up Madison Central’s first scoring drive, and Shacobia Luckett returned an interception 50 yards for a touchdown to spot the Jaguars a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

After Warren Central answered with a 5-yard TD run by Barnum and a 25-yard blocked punt return by Lamar Gray, Madison Central blocked the second PAT to leave the score at 14-13.

The teams traded touchdowns in the second quarter before Warren Central wrestled away the lead in the third. Barnum was stopped at the 1-yard line on a two-point conversion to leave the lead at 26-21 and the two missed conversions wound up looming large.

“It felt like we knew there wasn’t going to be a whole lot of scoring left, so we went for two when we did trying to even it up and get that point back. You could look at it, along with some other plays, as the difference in the ballgame,” Morgan said.

The Vikings and Jaguars mostly played a field position battle in the fourth quarter. Madison Central pinned WC deep in its end with a punt, but Walt Hopson bailed the Vikings out — momentarily, at least — with a booming kick from his own goal line that chased Madison’s Tucker Richmond back to his own 42 with 2:27 remaining in the game.

Facing the end of their season, the Jaguars put together one final, fantastic drive of their own. Cameron White ripped off a 13-yard run on the first play and Cedric Beal a 27-yarder on the next to move the ball to the WC 27. On four second-half possessions to that point, Madison Central had gained 45 yards.

Four more runs moved the ball to the Warren Central 11-yard line, but the Jaguars stalled out. Holiday threw two incompletions to bring up fourth-and-5 with 25 seconds to go.

The next play was also a pass. Robertson, the tight end, ran a short post route over the middle and Holiday beat a blitz. The ball got to the wide-open Robertson a yard deep in the end zone as the raucous fans in Viking Stadium fell suddenly silent.

“We didn’t think they were looking at the tight end, and he made an inside move and went back outside and made a great play. It was a good throw and catch,” Madison Central coach Anthony Hart said.

Warren Central had one last chance, with the ball at their own 20, two timeouts and 17 seconds to go. Barnum hit Patton for one last first down. Patton finished with six receptions for 75 yards and two touchdowns.

The Vikings misfired on an attempt at a hook-and-lateral play, however, leaving them 70 yards to cover and only four seconds on the clock. Barnum threw a pass to Hopson, who started a chain of nearly a dozen laterals to almost every teammate on the field. The football eventually wound up back inside the 10-yard line, where Hopson was tripped up and hit the ground before he could pitch it again to keep the play alive.

It was the second time this season that Madison Central had beaten Warren Central on what was essentially a walk-off touchdown. The Jaguars won 31-27 in double overtime on Oct. 6. This was the eighth consecutive meeting between the teams that has been decided by 10 points or less. Seven of those have been by seven points or less.

“They’re a great team,” Hart said of the Vikings. “We knew it was going to be physical and some great football team wasn’t going to win. Tonight it happened to be them.”