POPLARVILLE, Miss. — The No. 6 Pearl River men’s soccer team lost its first contest of the season Monday, falling to rival No.10 Gulf Coast 2-0. 

“It was a tale of two halves,” head coach Drew Gallant said. “We fought hard. I thought we made some bad decisions in there, still. Just because we fight hard doesn’t mean we were doing what we needed to to win.”

The Bulldogs (6-2 overall, 3-2 MACCC) got on the board early, scoring the first goal of the contest off of a corner in the 2nd minute. 

Gulf Coast extended its lead in the 39th minute with another goal to make it 2-0. 

The second half of play saw the Wildcats dominate the time of possession and give themselves several opportunities to get on the scoreboard. 

One of the many examples was in the 51st minute when Durron Myers (Gulfport) nearly scored on a header on a well placed corner kick from Ryley Smith (Manchester, England; Castlebrook). 

Smith nearly scored a goal of his own just a few minutes later on a strong shot from the middle that just barley missed. 

While the Wildcats (7-1, 4-1) controlled possession for most of the second half and gave themselves plenty of chances they were unable to cash in, ultimately falling 2-0. 

“We need to take a look at film, regroup and see what we did wrong in the first half,” Gallant said. “We made a tactical change going into this game that I thought would benefit us. Obviously it didn’t in the first half. I thought we looked much better when we went back to what we typically do in the second half. We have to take this bump in the road and move on.”

UP NEXT 

The Wildcats return to action Thursday night when they take on rival Jones College in Ellisville. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.