Bulldogs face daunting road trip

Mississippi Gulf Coast faces perhaps its biggest challenge of the season Friday and Saturday, playing games on consecutive nights far away from Perkinston.

The Bulldogs (6-2, 4-1 MACJC South) visit North opponents Itawamba and Northwest. There's a simple reason to schedule the games like this.

"If you want to win a state championship, you're going to have to play back-to-back," Gulf Coast coach Chris Handy said. "This is hard. This is our first dry run to get mentally prepared for an entire weekend, playing aback-to-back, playing aggressive in the first game to try to win early and play lots of people."

The Indians (3-3-1, 1-2-1 MACJC North) wait in the opener. They've won their last two games; a 5-0 whitewash of Holmes and a 3-0 win over Bethel University's junior varsity.

The Rangers (7-3-1, 2-2 MACJC North) are next up on Saturday, but they will have had an even tougher road to the showdown than Gulf Coast. They'll be playing their fourth game in five days, having lost 3-0 at Hinds on Tuesday and smoking Copiah-Lincoln 8-0 on Wednesday.

Northwest plays Co-Lin again Friday before facing the Bulldogs.

Handy said he's been working more freshmen into the lineup combinations this week, trying to give his starters more rest. He'd like to stretch out 60 minutes of play by his starters, spread throughout the game to lessen wear and tear.

The goal Friday will be to score early and try to establish breathing room. A tight game could prove costly to the entire trip.

"You can't win the Saturday game on Friday," Handy said, "but you can lose it."