No. 9 Gulf Coast loses late in turf debut
Published 10:37 am Tuesday, September 6, 2022
PERKINSTON — No. 9 Mississippi Gulf Coast played its first game on sparkling new artificial turf at Bary Thrash Field on Sunday night, and it was a thriller.
Unfortunately, the final thrill went to Patrick & Henry, which scored in the final 15 seconds to snatch a 4-3 win.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, but we struggled in some of the big moments,” Bulldogs coach Chris Handy said. “We’ll have to learn from it and move forward.”
Gulf Coast is now 2-2 on the season. Patrick & Henry, which is the first team outside the NJCAA Division II Men’s Soccer Top 20 receiving votes, is now 4-1.
It was MGCCC’s first game since hammering Andrew College 14-0 a week ago.
The Patriots went out in front in the first 10 minutes, but Miller Hayden (So., Hattiesburg/Oak Grove) helped spark a quick response. He drew a penalty after a scramble in the box following a corner in the 15th minute. Hyungjoon Lee (So., Suwon, South Korea/Dongbuk) scored to knot it up.
Miller pounced on a poor pass along the PHCC backline three minutes later and slotted home the go-ahead goal.
The Patriots tied it up 10 minutes later off a set piece that was headed in off the post.
They took advantage of a giveaway just after halftime to go in front 3-2.
Seongbin Son (So., Seoul, South Korea/Guhyun) won another penalty when he was taken down in the box, and countryman Lee converted for his second goal in the 57th minute.
A quick slashing attack in the final 20 seconds resulted in a partially-saved shot that trickled toward the goal line before PHCC banged it in with 10 seconds to play.
“It was another hard-fought game, which is what we need,” Handy said. “You would prefer this to the last game we played. This is the level we want to play. We want to play well against out-of-state teams.”
Gulf Coast returns to action Friday with a trip to Meridian to play St. Louis Community College. The game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
For more information on MGCCC’s 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
