Huge comeback falls just short for No. 4 Gulf Coast

PHOTO BY BOBBY McDUFFIE/MGCCC

PERKINSTON — No. 4 Mississippi Gulf Coast almost erased a 20-point first-quarter deficit Thursday night at A.L. May Memorial Stadium, but a last-minute two-point conversion failed, and the Bulldogs lost 27-26 to No. 10 Copiah-Lincoln. 

"Our kids never gave up," Gulf Coast coach Jack Wright said. "I knew we wouldn't. We've got a great group. They play hard. We just got too far down. We could count a dozen things throughout the course of the game that would have given us a better chance."

It was the first loss of the year for the Bulldogs, who are now 6-1 overall, 4-1 in MACCC South play. They're tied for first with identical records with the Wolves. Both teams have one more division game to play.

Gulf Coast travels to Clarksdale next week to play Coahoma. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m.

The Bulldogs trailed by 14 in the final minute of the third quarter, and Co-Lin appeared ready to convert a third Gulf Coast turnover into a third touchdown. Instead of icing the cake, the Regulators' Taurean Davis (So., Quitman County/DeSoto Central) forced a fumble that Keiyhaun Wilks (So., Carrolton/J.Z. George) recovered at the 12-yard line.

The Bulldogs marched all 88 yards in 13 plays, the final one a Landon Varnes (So., Brandon/Brandon) 7-yard pass to Tyler Henderson (So., Vicksburg/Vicksburg) with 9:25 to play.

After the teams exchanged punts three times, the Bulldogs got the ball back at their 24 with 2:37 to play. They methodically moved the ball down the field, and the ninth play was a 15-yard completion to Royale Shelvy (Fr., Fayette/Jefferson County). 

"That was just a shallow cross," Wright said. "He's made a lot of plays in practice; he just hadn't had that many touches in a game. It was a great play, just a one-on-one; he got enough separation, dove for the pylon and got in."

The Bulldogs threw the ball 52 times, and Wright was worried his offense wasn't going to have enough left for overtime. Varnes ran a bootleg and rolled left, but the pass fell incomplete.

Tyler Henderson (So., Vicksburg/Vicksburg) left the game on the next-to-last play with a cramp, but he finished with eight catches for 131 yards and two scores. Mason Beverly (Fr., Hattiesburg/Purvis) had four catches for 65 yards, and Shelvy finished with four for 60. Antwaan Mays (So., Miami, Fla./Gulliver Prep) had a touchdown catch.

Varnes completed 33-of-52 passes for 409 yards and four touchdowns but had three interceptions. Gulf Coast outgained Co-Lin by 210 yards, but the Wolves had three touchdown drives totaling 76 yards thanks to the turnovers.

The Regulators held the Wolves roughly half their rushing average, but they ripped off a 77-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 with 4:30 left in the first quarter. The Bulldogs threw a pick on the next play from scrimmage, and Co-Lin's flea flicker from 36 yards made it 20-0 on the next play.

"It looked like we weren't going to slow them down at all, but we have a tendency to catch up to offensive speed-wise," Wright said. "If you look at the way games have gone for us this year, we've given up some yards and some points early in the first quarter. We've kind of catch up. So it's kind of what happened tonight. It was just too a little too late."

Sha'Mar Sawyer (Fr., McComb/McComb) had 10 tackles to lead Gulf Coast. Tyler Bailey (So., Hammond, La./Ponchatoula) had five tackles, including two for losses with a sack. Davis also had a sack, as did Bryant Ausmer (Fr., Ocean Springs/Ocean Springs). 

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