No. 12 GULF COAST WINS MACCC

SUMMIT — The MACCC men's soccer season is a grind, to say the least. The regular season ended Tuesday night, and there was one team left on top.

The No. 12 Mississippi Gulf Coast beat Southwest Mississippi 3-1 to clinch the second conference title in three years. It was the fifth in school history.

"It's a reward for lots of hard work," Gulf Coast coach Chris Handy said. "It's a difficult conference. You play every three days whether you're hurt or not. The guys have been as close to perfect as you can get. They deserve it."

The Bulldogs finished 10-1 in league play and are now 12-2-2 overall. They finished two points ahead of No. 7 Jones and earned a bye into the NJCAA Gulf District Tournament semifinals. Their first postseason game will be Nov. 3 in Ellisville.

Gulf Coast scored in the 15^th minute after Jeongbin Kim (Fr., Paju, Korea/Anyang Technical) hit a long sinking shot at the Bears keeper. He couldn't corral the save, and Victor Moerck (Fr., Vaerloese, Denmark/Lyngby Handelsgymnasium) pounced on the rebound and put it in the top shelf.

Kim got his goal with 14 seconds left in the half. He curled a free kick past the keeper to beat the buzzer and double the lead heading into the break.

Kade Smith (Fr., London, England/Whitmore) made the lead 3-0 early in the second half. Moerck assisted.

Southwest (7-5-4, 4-5-2) got a goal back, but the Bulldogs coasted to the finish line.

"The last couple of games prepared us for this," Handy said. "Obviously, the Jones setback, we didn't feel great about ourselves. But we started to get better and better again with Itawamba and Hinds. They were ready tonight and focused. They knew what the job they had to do."

Gulf Coast faced a potential inflection point in the season a couple weeks after a tough loss to Jones at home. But the Bulldogs will head into the postseason on a three-game win streak.

"I'm proud for them, and I'm proud for everybody who wore Blue and Gold through the years," Handy said. "I look forward to the rest. I want to go try to get more hardware. Right now, we'll enjoy this one."

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