Bulldogs blank Wildcats

Mississippi Gulf Coast claimed a key MACCC South women's soccer win Friday, beating archrival Pearl River 2-0 in Poplarville.

Alyssa Palisi had a goal and an assist to help Gulf Coast push its win streak to three. Katherine Dubon (So., Richmond, Va./Manchester) scored the other goal.

"It was the best game we have played to date, which made it all the more fun to win 2-0," Gulf Coast coach Jackie Rhodes said. "We're finally starting to put the pieces together technically, so it's going to be fun to see how we can grow from here."

The Bulldogs (4-3, 3-1 South) moved past Pearl River (3-4-1, 2-2-1) into third place in the division. Meridian is a spot ahead thanks to a tie in an extra game played in the first round of the South schedule.

Gulf Coast will close out the first half of the division slate Oct. 7 when it travels to Jones. The Bulldogs play a scrimmage at Mississippi College on Tuesday.

The win was Gulf Coast's first over PRCC since 2018, including a pair of ties in the spring.

"As a whole, I thought they were great," Rhodes said. "Katie Brown was exceptionally great today. She missed a couple of chances that she had, but she was the reason we were able to win. And A.P. was so good. She did all of the work we needed her to do."

Palisi got the Bulldogs in front in the 37^th minute. Brown set her up, and Palisi's shot banged off the far post and back into the other side netting.

Gulf Coast scored less than two minutes into the second half, this time with Palisi doing the assisting. Her cross found Dubon at the back door, and the defense kept it third clean sheet of the season.

"Defensively, we had a very specific game plan. We knew they were going to play a lot of long balls, so we worked on dropping when certain people had the ball at their feet. I thought they did it very well."

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