Gulf Coast has the Wright stuff in season-opening win over Delta

Mississippi Gulf Coast never punted, allowed a scant 102 total yards and dominated Mississippi Delta 52-0 Thursday night at A.L. May Memorial Stadium in Jack Wright’s first game in charge of the Bulldogs.

“I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a little bit of emotion at the kickoff, so it feels really good,” he said in a press release. “It’s an exhale and take a deep breath after the game. I’m tickled to death with the effort we got and the execution, too. That’s a very good feeling.”

The Bulldogs opened the 2018 season in style, piling up 572 yards of total offense and the two-headed quarterback monster of Chance Lovertich (Fr., Jackson Prep/Brandon) and Lowell Narcisse (Fr., St. James/St. James La.) completed 20 of 22 passes for 345 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. The defense allowed just nine first downs and forced a fumble, and after a 13-play Delta drive that ended on downs at the MGCCC 19, the Bulldogs defense stiffened.

“We were disappointed that they scored 20 points on us last year,” said defensive back R’Tarriun Johnson (So., Stone/Wiggins). “We wanted to show how good we’ve become over the last few months. Our freshmen corners stepped up and made a couple of big hits. It wasn’t just sophomores. The freshmen made plays, which makes me feel real good about the future of our team.”

Itawamba 34, PRCC 30 — Sophomore running back Ron Thompson (Bassfield) had a career game Thursday but Pearl River Community College fell to Itawamba Community College 34-30 at Dobie Holden Stadium.

“We had a good first half and not a good second half,” PRCC coach Ted Egger said. “We left too many points off the scoreboard.”

Pearl River is back in action Thursday, Sept. 6 when East Mississippi visits Dobie Holden Stadium. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. The game can be heard on WRJW 1320 AM and viewed on PRCCAthletics.com.

Thompson finished the contest with a game-high 197 yards on 18 carries. He also scored on a 63-yard touchdown run that put PRCC (0-1) ahead 8-7 with 6:12 remaining in the first quarter.

Jones 44, Coahoma 0 — The Jones College Bobcats got rolling late in the first quarter and could not be stopped. Jones scored on four straight possessions to end the first half and went on to rip Coahoma 44-0 here Thursday night at Bobcat Stadium/Sim Cooley Field in the season opener.

The Bobcats got two touchdowns each from running back Kalyn Grandberry (Memphis, Tennessee) and wide receivers Immanuel Jones (Amory) and Gabe Douglas (Denton, Texas). Grandberry rushed 28 times for 135 yards.

Quarterback Stetson Bennett (Blackshear, Georgia) was 14-of-21 for 190 yards and quarterback Fred Barnum (Warren Central) was 9-of-10 for 82 yards. Jones had five catches for 73 yards and Douglas had two catches for 71 yards.

This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 5:42 AM.