NEWELLTON, La. &045; For the second straight week, Vidalia’s offense got off to a slow start, but a 38-point first quarter ended that in a hurry as the Vikings cruised to a 51-12 win over the Newellton Bears Friday night.

Vidalia (2-0), the fourth-ranked team in Class 2A, racked up 343 yards of total offense, 265 of those on the ground, and Tony Hawkins had a much better performance than he did in last week’s close win over Block, completing five of eight passes for 78 yards and one touchdown.

&uot;Offensively, we started out slow, but we’re starting to find the groove,&uot; Vidalia assistant coach Gry Paul Parnham said.

Vidalia took a 8-0 lead on a 62-yard touchdown run by Michael Randall, who led Vidalia’s rushing attack with 65 yards on two carries. and ensuing two-point conversion run.

Newellton (1-1) cut the lead to 8-6 on a 50-yard touchdown pass from Comorio Smith to Antoine Martin. But the two-point conversion run failed and the Bears still trailed.

&uot;They surprised us with that first touchdown,&uot; Parnham said. &uot;They went with four wideouts and they caught us off guard. Our defense put the clamps on them after that.&uot;

Newellton turned the ball over nine times in the game &045; six fumbles and three interceptions. In fact, Newellton quarterbacks Smith and Carnell Hill almost completed as many passes to Vidalia’s defense as they did to their own teammates (four).

Things would only get worse for Newellton as Vidalia would score the next 44 points of the game, including another 31 in the first quarter.

Hawkins threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Frederick Marsalis. Marsalis then scored on a 57-yard run, Chris Williams scored on a five-yard run and Jeffrey Anderson scored on an 18-yard fumble recovery for a 38-0 Vikings lead.

Marsalis had 55 yards rushing and 45 yards receiving in the game.

&uot;We started out flat again, but we picked it up midway through the first quarter,&uot; Parnham said. &uot;The score really speaks for itself. We got to play a lot of kids tonight and get them some experience.&uot;

A 15-yard touchdown run by Chase Clayton in the second quarter and a 31-yard touchdown run by Anderson gave the Vikings a 51-6 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Newellton’s other touchdown was a 49-yard scoring run by Desmond South.

Bowling Green 28, Centreville 24

CENTREVILLE &045; Centreville abandoned its running game too soon and it ended up costing them as Bowling Green held off a furious fourth-quarter rally to not only win a key MPSA District 4-2A game Friday night, but also do something that few teams have been able to do &045; defeat the Tigers at home.

Bowling Green (3-1, 1-1) jumped out to a 21-10 lead thanks mainly to two touchdown passes by quarterback Kyle Smith, one for 65 yards to Ryan Sessions on third and 9 midway through the second quarter, and the other for 23 yards to Brian Babers with just 18 seconds to go until halftime.

Blake Devall, who had 15 carries for 72 yards, scored the game’s first points on a four-yard run with 7:54 to go in the first quarter to give the Tigers (3-1, 1-1) a 7-0 lead.

Ryan Hunt tied the game on a nine-yard run early in the second quarter before Cody Shipley gave Centreville a 10-7 lead on a 35-yard field goal, which ended up being their last lead of the game.

After Hunt’s eight-yard touchdown run gave the Buccaneers a 28-10 lead, the Tigers scored twice in the fourth quarter on a 78-yard pass from Jennings Field to Devall and a 26-yard reception from Field to Chase Paulk.

In addition to his 142 combined yards of offense, Devall had 13 tackles to lead the Tigers’ defense. Field was 11-for-19 for 128 yards.

But an offsides penalty against Centreville on fourth down when Bowling Green was about to punt gave the Buccaneers a first down and allowed them to run out the clock and pull off a big district win.

Jackson, La. 18,

Wilkinson County 12

WOODVILLE &045; The Chiefs trailed the Wildcats 12-6 going into the fourth quarter, only to score the final 12 points of the game to take the win.

No other information was available as of press time.