No. 2 MGCCC hammers Southwest 40-14

MGCCC Photo/Rich Kopp

MGCCC kicker Sean Brauchle (44) boots a school record-breaking 55 yard field goal against Southwest Sept. 11.

Make it 15 in a row and counting for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

The No. 2 ranked Bulldogs used stifling defense and big plays from the offense to put away the feisty Southwest Bears 40-14 Sept. 11 at A.L. May Memorial Stadium on the college’s Perkinston Campus. With the victory, Gulf Coast (2-0, 1-0) won its 2008 home opener and is riding a 15-game winning streak, the longest in the nation.

“Anytime you play Southwest, it’s going to be dicey,” said Gulf Coast head coach Steve Campbell. “I’m just glad we came out with the win.”

Much like the first two games of 2008, Gulf Coast jumped out to a quick lead early in the contest. Defensive back Marcus Gibson picked off a pass on the game’s second play and went 13 yards to put the Bulldogs in front 6-0.

Later in the first quarter, Bulldog All-American kicker Sean Brauchle nailed a 55-yard field goal, the longest in college history, making it 9-0 Gulf Coast. Brauchle later added a 41 yarder and the Bulldogs led 12-0.

That’s when Gulf Coast faced its first real test of the 2008 season.

Mychal Bailey took the ensuing kickoff 55 yards to set up the Bears (0-2, 0-1) in Gulf Coast territory. Five plays later, Joshua Edison hit Johnny Thomas on a 17-yard touchdown pass to cut the Gulf Coast lead to 12-7.

“When it was 12-7, I knew it was going to be a battle,” said Gulf Coast All-American linebacker Chris White. “We had to come out and play much better.”

That’s exactly what the Bulldogs did.

Late in the second quarter, the Gulf Coast mounted a long drive, capped by a 7-yard touchdown pass from Greg Jenkins to Kevin Helms making it 19-7 Gulf Coast at Halftime.

In the third quarter, the Bulldogs increased their lead when Vic Ballard rambled 39 yards on a fourth down play to make it 26-7. Ballard scored from the Gulf Coast “jumbo” formation, where extra linemen are brought in on short yardage situations.

“We’ve run jumbo twice before tonight,” Campbell said. “On this one, I was glad to see Vick pop it.”

Ballard, a freshman from Pascagoula, scored his second long touchdown run this season.

“We were set up for a short yardage play,” he said, “but we turned it into more…that’s always good.”

Later in the third quarter, running back Earvin Moore plowed in from 7 yards out to make it 33-7.

In the fourth quarter, a Southwest touchdown pass was answered as All-American Demond Washington took a punt return and went 75 yards for a touchdown making it 40-14 Bulldogs.

“That was the closest thing to a test we’ve seen so far,” Campbell said. “I was proud of the way we responded tonight when we got pushed a little bit.”

Gulf Coast hosts East Mississippi Sept. 18 at 7 p.m. Bulldog fans can catch all the action on 91.7 FM WAOY and via streaming audio at www.mgccc.edu.