Battling Bulldogs fall in MACCC semifinals

PERKINSTON — No. 12 Mississippi Gulf Coast saw its 2022 season end Saturday night in the MACCC semifinals, falling to No. 14 East Mississippi 38-27 at A.L. May Memorial Stadium.

The Bulldogs (6-4) had battled back from the brink of elimination in the regular season to win the MACCC South for the fourth straight season, and they kept battling against the Lions (7-3).

"They're a bunch of fighters, mentally tough," Gulf Coast coach Jack Wright said. "After a couple of tough mid-season losses, I know the psyche of the team. I know what they had to battle through. I just respect them so much for their fight and ability to come back from those hard losses."

Gulf Coast threw four interceptions and lost the turnover battle by three. The Bulldogs allowed 291 yards rushing and 471 total yards. They picked up 454 yards themselves, but the picks were the killer. All four of them came inside the East Mississippi 20-yard line, two in the endzone.

Ramone Bradley (Fr., Fairhope Ala./Fairhope) led Gulf Coast with six catches for 108 yards. He had two first-half touchdown catches to make it a tie game at 14 headed into the break.

"Ramone's a dynamic player," Wright said. "I probably should have gotten the ball to him and Keymari (Odum) more. That was the plan, to have them touch the ball a lot. But you have to give (EMCC) credit. They took away some of the things we've been doing lately."

Keymari Odum (So., Haines City Fla./Ridge) caught four passes for 78 yards and had another touchdown catch, his 10^th of the season. 

The Lions scored on theur first four possessions of the second, scoring 24 points to seize control of the game.

The Bulldogs scored on a short drive after a long punt return by Jonathan Harris (So., Hattiesburg/Petal). Pat McQuaide (Fr., Solon Ohio/Solon) scored on a 1-yard plunge, and he threw his third touchdown with 71 seconds left, this one to Odum. The Bulldogs recovered the onside kick, but a final interception closed the game out.

"I love 'em to death," Wright said. "The chips have been down, and this team has definitely had some adversity to fight through. They never made excuses. Anytime we had an injury or a loss, nobody ever pointed a finger at anybody else, blamed anybody else. Even better, they pointed the finger at themselves. Every one of them chose to get better and fight for each other.

"We hate to go down like this. We had some great chemistry, and I thought that would get us through tonight."

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