The 46th meeting between Warren Central and Vicksburg High felt a lot like the first 45 in many ways. There was plenty of emotion, some pregame trash talk amongst the fans, a little chippiness on the field, and some great performances.

And, of course, a Warren Central victory.

Nash Morgan ran for 110 yards and two touchdowns, Xavier Jackson also scored twice, and Warren Central rolled to a 45-3 win Friday in the 64th annual Red Carpet Bowl at Memorial Stadium.

Warren Central (4-0) beat Vicksburg (0-4) for the 15th consecutive season, and the 38th time in 46 meetings overall.

“It’s great to play in, great to be a part of,” WC coach Josh Morgan said of the rivalry game. “We challenged our guys to play our best game and a complete four quarters, and start fast and things of that nature. I was really proud. I thought we showed a lot of maturity and did a good job of preparing all week long to play well.”

Vicksburg has had a bad habit of starting slow — it’s been outscored 89-11 in the first half of its last three games — and the trend continued Friday.

The Gators’ first two plays resulted in lost yardage and the third in a fumble at their own 20-yard line. The Vikings recovered and cashed in with Nash Morgan’s 1-yard run three plays later.

Vicksburg went three-and-out on its next two possessions, setting up Warren Central with short fields that it turned into points. Nash Morgan broke a 46-yard touchdown run and Javid Scott capped a six-play drive with a 1-yard run to make it 21-0 with 1:35 left in the first quarter.

“Coming in the game we were very locked in with film, so we knew what they were going to do, and that just fuels the fire. That was a perfect start. We needed that,” Warren Central linebacker Micah Moore said.

Vicksburg got on the board in the second quarter with Casey Brown’s 25-yard field goal. Quarterback Deonta Selvy Jr. completed a 33-yard pass to Jaquez Jones to start the drive, and also had runs of 13 and 15 yards for first downs.

That was the extent of the Gators’ offensive highlight package, however. Out of their 38 offensive snaps in the game, 16 went for negative yardage. Warren Central had 10 tackles for loss and five sacks. Jamal Washington had two of the sacks and a tackle for loss, while Crishun Brown, Kenny Woods and Cole Nolan had one sack each.

Vicksburg finished with just 78 yards of total offense, with 64 of those coming on its scoring drive in the second quarter.

“They just beat us. It was a good old butt whupping,” Vicksburg coach Christopher Lacey said.

Jackson scored on a 1-yard run just before halftime to cap a 4 1/2-minute drive and send the Vikings into the break with a 28-3 lead. They then got the opening kickoff and kept the ball for another six minutes until Nick Lee booted a 42-yard field goal.

Jackson’s 13-yard run with 30 seconds left in the third quarter extended the lead to 38-3, and Aiden Lumpkin broke a 36-yard TD run in the fourth quarter to finish the scoring.

Jackson finished with 54 yards on 11 carries. Nash Morgan completed his first 10 pass attempts before throwing incomplete on his 11th and final one, and finished with 128 yards through the air.

Josh Morgan was happy with the Vikings’ performance, and to get another win. Warren Central has won 14 games in a row overall, which is the program’s longest streak since a run of 26 straight from 1978-80.

“We’re still after our best game and be more consistent with what we’re doing,” Morgan said. “It was good to see us put some distance between us and continue to go, and try to get better all the way through the game. We got to see some young guys get in and do really good, and hold them to the same standard.”

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