No. 7 Gulf Coast pummels PRCC, clinches South

PERKINSTON – There's only one thing better than beating an archrival.

And that's beating an archrival to clinch a title.

No. 7 Mississippi Gulf Coast did both Thursday night at A.L. May Memorial Stadium, waxing Pearl River 41-10 to win the MACJC South Division title.

"We're right where we want to be," Gulf Coast coach Chad Huff said. "Winning the South is one of our goals, but to continue to where we want to go, we've got to focus. We can enjoy this win; it's a huge win for the program, the college and everyone here associated with Gulf Coast."

Hinds defeated No. 9 Co-Lin 33-26, leaving the Bulldogs (6-1, 5-0 MACJC South) atop the pack. Jones is 2-1 in the division heading into Saturday's game against East Central, but lost at Gulf Coast two weeks ago giving the Bulldogs a potential tiebreaker.

Gulf Coast closes out its division slate next Thursday at Co-Lin, where it will try to complete an undefeated South record.

"We've got to see how much better we can get and go on the road to Wesson and play Co-Lin up there. We want to finish the South out the right way."

The Bulldogs slammed the door on the Wildcats (2-5, 1-4) right away. They scored touchdowns on their first five drives to take a commanding 34-3 halftime lead.

Chris Robinson punctuated three of those drives with touchdown runs, from 5, 4 and 15 yards on consecutive drives.

"He's a heck of a player," quarterback A.J. Erdely said. "He makes little holes look big. I don't know how he breaks those tackles and gets in those little holes."

"They call me the little smurf on the team," Robinson said. "I guess that helps me. They can't see me behind the big linemen."

He finished with 59 yards rushing on 11 carries and had two catches for 14 yards.

"Tonight, I felt like nobody could stop me," said Robinson.

Robinson was one of six running backs with more than 20 yards, with the Bulldogs racking up 234 yards on the ground. Erdely completed 18-of-27 passes for 149 yards, completing passes to six different players.

"We just wanted to be the more physical team," offensive lineman Rishard Cook said. "Nobody else had done it yet to them because they scheme a lot. We executed and played physical ball."

Gulf Coast completed its second consecutive game without a turnover. On the other side of the ball, the Bulldogs got a pick-six by Danzel Allen on the first play of the fourth quarter to win that statistical category.

There were a pair of Bulldog sacks, as the defense generated nearly constant pressure on Pearl River quarterbacks Mac Lowrie, Matt Williams and Marshall Kranz, who combined for a mere 8-of-33 for 84 yards.

"We know that we had an advantage up front," defensive end Isaiah Buggs said. "We knew we could get to the quarterback and make some big plays."

Gulf Coast allowed only 82 rushing yards, and an impressive 166 total yards.

"We challenged them all week with the big week, Pearl River week, the big rivalry, but it was the next step in getting to where we want to go," Huff said. "They had a real good week of practice and came out and played like it.

"We talked about playing with your heart, mind and soul, being focused and making good decision, playing hard, giving great effort and being physical. I think we did that tonight."