Barron Miller (#44) chases down Pearl River quarterback Kaylon Cooper in a 7-0 win Oct. 11.

Posted: Oct 11, 2014

Back-to-Back blankings for MGCCC football

POPLARVILLE---If defensive does win championships, them Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College could be on the way to a magical 2014 campaign.

Thanks to a 7-0 blanking of archrival Pearl River and a 28-0 win over Southwest on Oct. 2, the Bulldogs have recorded back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 1982. It's also the first time a Gulf Coast team has had multiple shut out games in a season since 1999.

"I can't say enough about how hard our defense played today," said Gulf Coast head coach Chad Huff. "All year we've talked about counting on each other, and we counted on the defense today, and that unit came through for us."

A fumble recovery by Gulf Coast at the Pearl River 1-yard line set up the game's only score, a 1-yard TD plunge by back-up quarterback Thad Miller with 2:14 to go in the first quarter.

From there, the Bulldogs (7-0, 5-0) recovered another fumble, blocked a Pearl River field goal attempt, and sacked Wildcat quarterback Kaylon Cooper three times, with the last one coming as Pearl River (3-4, 1-4) was facing a fourth-and-one with 51 seconds left in the contest.

The Bulldogs are now 8-1 against Pearl River since 2007.

"We knew the game was on us," said Bulldog linebacker Rod Sims. "We weren't going to let them score."

The Bulldogs have already clinched their eighth straight trip to the post season, and with a win next week by over Co-Lin, the Bulldogs would clinch the MACJC South Division title and have home field advantage throughout the MACJC Playoffs.