No. 7 Gulf Coast loses overtime heartbreaker

WESSON – Mississippi Gulf Coast tried to seize an opportunity in overtime here Thursday against Copiah-Lincoln.

A two-point conversion to win fell just short, handing the No. 7 Bulldogs a tough 31-30 loss.

"There's still a lot of football in front of us," Gulf Coast coach Chad Huff said. "It's not the outcome we wanted tonight, but it was a tough South Division contest."

The No. 14 Wolfpack had scored on their first possession in overtime, and Gulf Coast overcame a negative first play to score when Tevaris McCormick somersaulted into the end zone to punctuate a 10-yard run.

Co-Lin called timeout to ice the kicker, but then had 12 men on the field when play resumed. Huff called his own timeout and decided to go for it himself.

"There at the end, given that opportunity again, I'd do it again," he said. "I thought we had some momentum. We'd already converted two fourth downs. It'd been good for us, and I felt like we'd get it in there."

With their heavy offensive package in the game, quarterback A.J. Elderly handed the ball off to Ge'Vonte Jones. He struggled over a pile and stretched the ball out.

"I stuck the ball across the goal line," Jones said.

The referees disagreed, and the ballgame ended.

Gulf Coast (6-2, 5-1 MACJC South) had already clinched the South Division title. The Bulldogs close out the regular season with homecoming on Oct. 24 against Itawamba, followed by a rematch against Northwest in a first-round playoff game the next weekend.

Co-Lin, which Wednesday had to forfeit a pair of victories, improved to 4-4, 3-2.

The Bulldogs had seen a 17-10 lead with 10:49 left evaporate on a 75-yard touchdown run by Ladarius Galloway. Erdely then saw a promising drive end on a tipped ball that was picked off, setting Co-Lin at midfield.

The Wolfpack scored with 2:41 left, but the Bulldogs responded with a seven-play, 53-yard drive.

Ishmel Morrow had a 24-yard catch-and-run that nearly tied the game with a minute left in regulation. Jones scored on a 1-yard dive the next play to make it 24-24.

Jones ran 21 times for 94 yards to lead Gulf Coast, which ran for 270 yards. Chris Robinson added 92 yards on 15 carries.

"I thought we did a good job running the football. We were physical and have a lot of good things to build off of."

Morrow led Gulf Coast with three receptions for 45 yards. McCormick had two touchdowns, one on the ground and one receiving, and Jevon Floyd had a 35-yard touchdown receptions.

Gulf Coast ran 78 plays to Co-Lin's 59, and had 416 yards to the Wolfpack's 365.

"I told our guys in the locker room, that's life," Huff said. "When you get knocked down, you have to get up. You have to learn from mistakes, learn from what happened tonight. It's gonna prepare us for the next game and the next challenge."