No. 6 Gulf Coast gets late winner to advance

PERKINSTON — No. 6 Mississippi Gulf Coast got pushed to the bitter end of its first playoff game, and the Bulldogs hit Copiah-Lincoln with a lightning attack late to win 1-0.

Gulf Coast's Ibrahim Konare (Fr., Le Havre, France/Institute of the Sacred Heart Mons) got on the end of a Vincenzo Jeanfreau (Fr., Saucier/Pass Christian) cross with 3:29 to play for the victory at Bary Thrash Field.

"In the end, the game is beautiful, but it's really simple: You score on counters, you score on set pieces," Gulf Coast coach Chris Handy said. "For us, they were essentially taking a set piece with a long throw, and it led to a counter for us. To be able to turn one of their attacking plays into an attacking play for ourselves is kind of romantic, to be honest with you."

The win in the NJCAA Gulf South District quarterfinals advances the Bulldogs (12-2-4) into the semifinals Thursday in Ellisville. They'll have to wait for the results of Saturday's other quarterfinals to determine their opponent. The finals are now being played Nov. 9.

The Wolves were taking a throw into the Bulldogs box, and Gulf Coast exploded out the other side of the penalty area and went surging up the field. Jeanfreau got almost to the end line and pulled a perfect cross into the 6-yard box. Nygel Jobe (So., Brandon/Brandon) slashed up the middle but couldn't connect.

Konare did, and the second-seeded Bulldogs were able to see the game out.

"I'm very proud of the league," Handy said. "This was a really, really tough game at a really, really high level. Co-Lin was really good. We're banged up, but the fight the guys showed, I'm really proud of them."

Co-Lin ends its season 8-5-2.

The Bulldogs get a valuable extra day off before the final four gets started.

"The most important thing we can do is try to get a little bit healthy," Handy said. "We were pretty thin there at the end. We just need to get healthy. We played lots of games, lots of styles. We're prepared on the field if we can all get on the field."

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