High-flying Bulldogs keep winning

No. 17 Mississippi Gulf Coast metronomic offense kept ticking along, and the defense recorded its second straight shutout Tuesday. The Bulldogs downed Northwest Mississippi 4-0 after a long trip to Senatobia.

The Bulldogs (6-1-2) have scored four goals in each of the last five games, including the first four MACCC contests to stay unbeaten in the conference. Kade Smith (Fr., London, England/Whitmore) scored twice and has seven goals in nine games.

"Maybe one day we'll get five," Gulf Coast coach Chris Handy said. "I don't know if that will be anytime soon, but I think the most important things are the shutout and everybody got to play. We got full points and full goal differential. There's nothing better we can do in the standings, so we'll take it."

The team made the 10-hour roundtrip to Senatobia all in one day, so that was another self-imposed challenge overcome.

Gulf Coast hasn't allowed a goal in 183 minutes dating back to a 4-1 win over Copiah-Lincoln on Sept. 19. David Ruiz Ospina (Fr., Manizales, Colombia/Gimnasio del Pacifico) has four shutouts, and his goals-against average is down to 1.13. 

"We've proven we can score goals, but we need to show we can be consistent defensively," Handy said. "Today we really didn't give up many opportunities. David got the shutout, but we didn't really make him do much work. Sometimes, that's just as important." 

Hayden Thomas (Fr., Clinton/Clinton) set up Smith for his first goal in the 31^st minute. Terron McIntyre (So., Madison/Madison Central) hit a cross in the 38^th minute that found Nygel Jobe (Fr., Brandon/Brandon) for a 2-0 halftime lead.

Jeongbin Kim (Fr., Paju, Korea/Anyang Technical) picked a player's pocket for the third goal, and Smith's second came courtesy of Victor Moerck (Fr., Vaerloese, Denmark/Lyngby Handelsgymnasium).

Northwest falls to 1-6 overall, 1-3 MACCC. 

Gulf Coast will travel to Decatur on Friday. The Bulldogs take on East Central at 7 p.m.

For more information on MGCCC's 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.