Top-ranked Pearl River Community College forced eight turnovers Thursday night, returning two for scores as the Wildcats began the junior college football season with a 50-10 thumping of visiting Mississippi Delta at Dobie Holden Stadium.

The Wildcats actually fell behind 3-0 early, but tallied 37 unanswered points with the help of their stout defense to take control of the game and retain their number one ranking in the nation.

“We struggled a little on offense early, but when you have a defense as good as what we’ve got you can afford to take some chances on offense even if they don’t work out,” PRCC head coach Tim Hatten, whose squad is gunning for its fourth straight state championship, said. “We caused a lot of turnovers and that helped us and we turned most of them into points.”

Two of the eight turnovers registered by the Wildcats were interceptions picked off by Picayune’s Brent Acker.

The Wildcats were sluggish early on offense behind new quarterback Lance Cuevas, and thanks to a 5-yard scoring run by Bubba Kirksey PRCC held just a 7-3 lead with less than a minute to go in the first half against the underdog Trojans.

But a furious rally by the Wildcats that resulted in nine points in the final minute before halftime seemed to ignite PRCC.

Theo Wilson hit Roger Frazier on a 50-yard hail mary touchdown pass with just under a minute to play to extend the Wildcats’ lead, and then, after another Trojan turnover, Brad Bingham connected on the second longest field goal in the history of PRCC when he nailed a 51 yarder with time expiring to make it 16-3 at intermission.

“I think the field goal by Bingham gave us some momentum that carried over into the second half,” Hatten added.

The Wildcats wasted no time in putting Delta away as the second half began, as Devin McNair picked off a pass and ran it back 48 yards on the second play of the third quarter to make it 23-3.

After a Josh Wiley interception for PRCC on the ensuing possession, Cuevas hit Shawn Ector for a nine yard scoring strike to make it 30-3 and virtually put the game away.

Pearl River will return to action again on Thursday, travelling to Clarksdale to take on Coahoma before coming back to south Mississippi to face a huge South Division encounter on the road at Perkinston against Mississippi Gulf Coast on Sept. 13.