NATCHEZ &045; Natchez High quarterback Jason Bruce suited up as a sophomore in 2003, and he can remember how bad things got.

Sans a 14-12 win over Vicksburg, the Bulldogs’ Friday nights usually followed the same script &045; start poorly, get buried early, give up about 30 points by halftime and get blown out in embarrassing fashion before the final horn sounded.

This past Friday night, however, was a bit different.

There was the sluggish start, but the Bulldogs rallied back and had a chance to tie the game up before falling by six points to Vicksburg. The slow start put them behind the 8-ball, but the Bulldogs outscored Vicksburg 27-7 after the first of the third quarter before falling 40-34.

Bruce, like those in the nice crowd at Tom F. Williams Stadium to watch the game, knows improvement won’t happen overnight.

&uot;When they would score a touchdown, they would hang their heads,&uot; Bruce said of the past. &uot;Instead of stepping up and coming together as a team and a unit, they’d put their heads down. We’re trying to stay focused and not get content. We’ve still got some things we need to work on. We were making good plays, but we know we have to execute better.&uot;

The steps Natchez High has to take toward being a better football team may be slow and tedious, but you can see glimpses of improvement. The Bulldogs were trying to run mostly up the middle or off tackles in the first half with little success, but they switched to lots of option and sweeps in the second half.

That turned the game around a bit, and the offense did it while committing just one turnover.

&uot;We started to work on some things we put in in the off-season,&uot; Natchez head coach Lance Reed said. &uot;We made a few plays here and there. Give credit to (Vicksburg) &045; they got after it. We knew they’d be tough to match up against. I’m proud of the kids and their effort. We’re never content with a loss. The potential we see out of them, we want to push them to the limit and we’ve got a long way to go.&uot;

The Bulldogs found success with the option attack with Bruce and backs Latarus Frazier and Brandon Lewis as a means of stretching out the Vicksburg defense. The Bulldogs had success on a similar play in the first half &045; Bruce just around the right side that resulted in the quarterback being untouched on a 45-yard run for a score.

That made the Gators guess a little bit more, and the Bulldogs were able to revert back to their no-huddle, shotgun formation and pass.

&uot;That first half, we were kind of down,&uot; Bruce said. &uot;After we were down 26-7, we went in at halftime and my quarterback coach told me to settle down and make plays. We came out and did what we were coached to do. The line did like they were coached to do, and it was all clicking.&uot;

It created havoc for the Gators’ front, which was solid in the second quarter and didn’t give up a first down. But credit them for regrouping at two critical points in the fourth quarter &045; a fourth-and-10 at the Bulldogs’ own 27 when Bruce got only four yards and a third down the next drive when Willis McGowan came up with an interception.

&uot;We’d have the quarterback and not the pitch or the pitch and not the quarterback,&uot; VHS head coach Alonzo Stevens said. &uot;We had to play through that. We’ve just got to keep working. I think we’ve got a real good team.&uot;

LAST GASP &045; The Gators had a chance to put the game away late when they got down to the Natchez 3-yard line following McGowan’s interception, and Chavous McWhorter was primed for another productive run up the middle for a score.

But he lost it right before the goal line. Travis Isaac picked it up and returned it all the way to the VHS 25, and Natchez got a score out of it that cut the lead to six with 34 seconds left.

Fluke? Consider what happened two years ago when the Gators lost 14-12 in a game that featured more bizarre twists and turns than anything Rod Serling could come up with.

&uot;My first job was with Tom Williams,&uot; Stevens said. &uot;He hired me in 1974. I said, ‘Tom must be looking down on this field.’ Our senior fullback fumbled the ball &045; that was the flukiest thing of all of it.&uot;

That was one of several key plays by the defense, even after the offense put it in a bad position following the turnover. That was how the game started with turnovers leading to good field position for the Gators.

When there weren’t turnovers, however, the Bulldogs’ defense stood its ground.

&uot;Forty points is a lot of points,&uot; Reed said. &uot;I thought we had a good game plan on defense, and sometimes we were in bad spots on the field that put our defense in a bind. They had short fields several times, and that goes back to mistakes we made.&uot;