The Berry football team kept their hopes of defending its conference championship alive Saturday afternoon when the Vikings handed homestanding Hendrix a 42-21 Southern Athletic Association defeat in Conway, Ark.

                The win, the third in a row for the Vikings, improves them to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the conference heading into a huge SAA showdown next Saturday when Berry hosts undefeated and co-conference leader Birmingham-Southern at Valhalla at 3 p.m.

                Against Hendrix, the Vikings continued to excel on both sides of the ball with the offense rolling up more than 400 yards, while Berry's defense kept the Warriors in check.

                Berry showed how balance it can be when holding on to the ball as the Vikings rushed for 417 yards on the ground and had 213 via the pass.

                Quarterback Gavin Gray did a lot of both as the junior ended the afternoon completing 14 of 25 passes for 215 yards – Diondre Wilson led the team with five catches for 101 yards – and ran for 44 more yards and a touchdown.

                For the second week in a row, freshman running back Josh Rogers led the team in rushing gaining 154 yards on 20 carries, three of those resulting in touchdowns. Backfield teammates Jonahan Maisonave and Hunter Kautz also scored a TD each.

                On the defensive side of the ball, Connor Cheyunski led the Vikings with 11 tackles and John Mancuso has eight, while Khalil Walker and Cade Kennemore each came up with interception.

                The Vikings wasted little time take the lead they would never relinquish scoring on the first series of the game when Berry needed just five plays to put points on the board when Gray scored on a 10-yard run.

                Rogers extended the lead when he scored from five yards out and after Hendrix closed the gap with a TD late in the second quarter, the Vikings widened the gap with 48 seconds remaining until halftime when Rogers struck again, this time reaching paydirt from with a 14-yard scoring run.

                Hendrix refused to back down and stayed within striking distance scoring at the start of the third period to cut into Berry's lead, 20-13, but the Vikings quickly opened up their lead as they scored 33 unanswered points to close the door on the Warriors as Rogers scored his third TD on a 7-yard run, Kautz broke into the end zone from a yard out, Maisonave delivered a 4-yard touchdown run and placekicker Matthew Syverson converted a 24-yard field goal.