No. 5 Bulldogs cruise into playoffs with big win

PERKINSTON — No. 5 Mississippi Gulf Coast earned a share of the MACCC South title Thursday night with a convincing 56-14 win over Hinds in the regular-season finale.

It's the sixth straight season the Bulldogs have won outright or shared the division championship, extending a school record. They will travel in the first round of the conference playoffs.

Gulf Coast (8-1 overall, 5-1 South) won despite being Hinds (2-7, 2-4) crushing the Bulldogs in time of possession. The Eagles had the ball for more than 41 minutes.

"The one thing that stands out were the big plays in the first half," Gulf Coast coach Jack Wright said. "There were some long passes, long runs, some chunk plays that wound up in the endzone. That was the difference in the score."

Gulf Coast had scoring plays of 76, 63, 44 and 21 yards to negate that deficit in possession, with six scoring drives taking less than three minutes.

The biggest plays of the night, though, came on special teams. Trey Hall (So., Vicksburg/Warren Central) scored his first of three touchdowns on a 21-yard scamper, set up by a 64-yard kickoff return by Brandon Hines (So., New Orleans, La./Northshore).

The Bulldogs scored again on the ensuing kickoff. Taurean Davis (Fr., Quitman County/DeSoto Central) tracked down the return man from behind, hacking the ball free. Shadrick Toodle (Fr., Mobile, Ala./Cottage Hill) was there, and scored from 34 yards.

"Sometimes you get lucky," Wright said. "Taurean made a great play coming from behind on the kick returner. He stripped the ball out of his right arm, and it was a great individual effort. Luckily for us, the ball bounced right up into Toodle's hands. He was standing up, facing the end zone. It was an easy touchdown after he came up with it."

That made the score 20-14, and the Bulldogs added three more touchdowns before halftime. JP Coulter (So., Ocean Springs/Ocean Springs) scored from 76 yards on a one-play drive, Hall plunged in from 3 yards, and Mason Beverly's second touchdown of the game came from 44 yards.

"Our offensive line played great all week in practice, and they prepared well," quarterback Landon Varnes said. "We came out here, and they kept me off the ground. The receivers made a bunch of plays, a bunch of game-changing plays."

Varnes (Fr., Brandon/Brandon) completed 13 of 14 passes for 259 yards and three touchdowns before the half. He finished with 303 passing yards.

Trey Hall (So., Vicksburg/Warren Central) finished the night with six carries for 98 yards, including a 63-yard dash in the fourth quarter.

The Regulators were on the field for 74 plays, while the Bulldogs ran only 42. They gave up 305 yards, but were able to get stops after Hinds scored on its first two drives.

The Bulldogs had 11 tackles for loss, including 3.5 by Al Sandifer (So., Greenwood/Greenville Christian), who finished with 10 tackles and two sacks. Montrell Chapman (So., Batesville/South Panola) led the team with 12 tackles and forced a fumble.

"It was rough at the beginning, but down the line we got locked in," Chapman said. "Every day we do pursuit drills in practice, and that got us ready for this."

Javen Gibson (So., Church Point La./Church Point) had a late sack for a safety

"There were a lot of open-field tackles, a lot of individual effort and bodies flying around. You've got to give their quarterback credit for extending plays. We made enough plays to get them off the field."

Gulf Coast will have to travel for the MACCC semifinals on Nov. 9, and its destination will be determined Friday by the Northwest Mississippi-Itawamba game. It will determine the North Division champion, and the Bulldogs will travel to the winner.

"It'll always be a high-quality opponent," Wright said. "We'll have to travel, and it will be kind of a long trip. We'll have to prepare for that and get our guys ready for it. I think we can handle it well because we've got a mature group."

For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.