No. 9 Gulf Coast comes back, defeats Northeast 40-23

BOONEVILLE – Ishmel Morrow caught nine passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns to help lead Mississippi Gulf Coast to a 40-23 victory at Northeast on Thursday night.

Reggio Dean, a freshman linebacker from Laurel, had an interception, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery on the other side of the ball.

"It was definitively an offense-defense-special teams ballgame," Gulf Coast coach Chad Huff said. "It was not perfect, but anytime you go on the road and beat a football team making the mistakes we made, I'll take it."

Gulf Coast won its 10^th straight game against Northeast going back through the 1998 season.

Huff stressed to his team in the preseason that wins came from creating turnovers and making big plays. The Bulldogs didn't fare well in those two categories in the first half, but flipped the tables in the second.

"We won the turnover battle," Huff said. "We gave up some explosives, but we also created some explosives and won the explosive battle.

"And special teams, Josh Rowland, I can't say enough. He was 4-of-5 tonight. I can't say enough about him."

Rowland, a freshman from Madison, had a dream start to his career, making field goals from 23, 25, 38 and 25 yards.

"It was an incredible feeling for my first college game kicking," he said. "I loved every second of it."

Gulf Coast dug itself a 14-3 first-quarter hole after giving up two big plays to Joe Horn Jr. One was a 36-yard touchdown reception, and another set up a short touchdown run.

Horn finished with three catches for 119 yards, with Kendrick Doss completing 16-of-29 passes for 262 yards.

The Bulldogs had an early turnover that contributed to their problems, as well.

Morrow, a sophomore from Ocean Springs, caught his first touchdown pass, a 9-yarder from A.J. Erdely, that made it a 14-10 game. Rowland's second field goal cut the deficit to one before a miscue between the long snapper and punter resulted in a safety.

Dean's 32-yard interception return in the final minute of the first half set up a last-second scoring opportunity.

"I dropped back getting under a seam (route)," Dean said. "Then I just read the quarterback and he took me right to the ball. I stepped in front of him and picked it."

It resulted in Rowland's only miss of the night, but the Bulldogs rallied in the locker room.

"We got fired up at halftime," Morrow said. "We didn't like how they put it on us like that."

Gulf Coast reeled off 20 unanswered third-quarter points to seize control of the game. Rowland added two more field goals, coupled with another Erdely-to-Morrow touchdown from 37 yards and a 2-yard Chris Robinson run.

Erdely completed 18-of-29 passes for 290 yards, the vast majority attacking the right sideline with Morrow.

"He made me look good for tonight, that's for sure," said Erdely, who ran for 31 yards and kept plays alive with his feet all night. "All the receivers competed well tonight."

The Bulldogs added their last score after Dean ran back a fumble 72 yards. He was pulled down at the 8-yard line, and later joked that it made him feel slow.

"He plays hard and gives great effort," Huff said. "He comes to work every day, and it showed tonight. He plays like he practices and that's good to see."

Gulf Coast returns to action next week on another long road trip. The Bulldogs visit Northwest on Thursday. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m.fe