No. 8 MGCCC wins 7th straight MACCC South title

PHOTO BY BRAD SMITH/HINDS COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

RAYMOND — For a seventh year in a row, No. 8 Mississippi Gulf Coast is an MACCC South champ after a scintillating 31-10 victory Thursday in a must-win game against No. 12 Hinds.

The Bulldogs (8-1, 5-1 South) will travel to Scooba next week to play No. 15 East Mississippi in an MACCC semifinal. The time and date will be announced Friday. Copiah-Lincoln (8-1, 5-1 South) earned half the division title and will host Northwest Mississippi (8-1, 5-1 North) in the other semi.

"I'm really proud that we've been able to really recruit the players to do that," Gulf Coast coach Jack Wright. "That's what college football is about — recruiting. We've had a lot of really good players over the last seven years. This is a fantastic group to work with."

Hinds (6-3, 4-2) saw its season end in a game that was in doubt until the final quarter. Gulf Coast's Regulators made two huge plays during a night of great efforts on the defensive side of the ball that helped stave off the Eagles.

Hinds had the ball at the Gulf Coast 1-yard line late in the first half, facing a fourth down. They tried to run star quarterback Jaylon Ruffin off the left side, but he was met by Kaleb Arterberry (Fr., Pearl/Pearl) and Jabari McWilliams (So., Picayune/Picayune) and others to preserve a 17-7 lead.

"In close games, there are usually big moments right before halftime and coming out of halftime," Wright said. "That was a massive play. They're going to make it a one-score game going into halftime, which is where they want to be. Already in my mind, I was thinking it was a one-score game and how we were going to approach it at halftime. But the Regulators came up big, and we go in up two scores. That's a massive play."

Linebacker Taurean Davis (So., Quitman County/DeSoto Central) and cornerback Elijah Owens (Fr., Mobile, Ala./Citronelle) led the Bulldogs with nine tackles. Tyler Bailey (So., Hammond, La./Ponchatoula) and Keiyhaun Wilks (So., Carrolton/J.Z. George) had sacks.

The defense got a big turnover in a 17-10 game with 10 minutes to play when Willie Breland (So., Wiggins/Stone) stripped a Hinds ballcarrier. Tristan Anderson (Fr., Rockmart, Ga./Rockmart) recovered and returned 13 yards to the Hinds 8-yard line. Four plays later, Alan Woods (Fr., Jacksonville, Fla./University Christian) punched it in from the 1 for his second score of the night.

The Regulators got a fourth-down stop on the next possession, and two plays later, Tyler Henderson (So., Vicksburg/Vicksburg) broke a tackle and sprinted 62 yards for an insurance touchdown. 

He caught four passes for 128 yards, and Royale Shelvy (Fr., Fayette/Jefferson County) had a 33-yard TD reception on the first drive of the game. Landon Varnes (So., Brandon/Brandon) completed 14-of-23 passes for 273 yards and those two scores.

The Bulldogs also ran for 141 yards, led by Elijah Jones-Crosby (Fr., Laurel/West Jones), who had 17 carries for 97 yards.

"We're used to playing on the turf; we're used to playing in hot weather," Wright said. "We didn't have that tonight, so we felt like we could run the ball on them. We went in at halftime, saw where we were running the football and said, Hey, let's keep doing it."

The Gulf Coast will start preparing for a rematch against East Mississippi. The teams opened the season against each other, with the Bulldogs claiming a 41-21 victory.

Thursday's game was essentially a playoff game, but Wright says those vibes go further back.

"In the South, every game's a playoff game," Wright said. "The crazy thing is, we have a really good team, and we were going into this game 7-1 and still fighting for our lives to try to get in. That's a credit to this conference. That is a credit to the coaches and the players in this conference. The level of competition is only getting better. The talent level is high on all these teams. It's just a battle week in and week out. It'll be the same next week."

For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.