POPLARVILLE, Miss. — The No. 15 Pearl River men’s soccer team’s season-opening rivalry game certainly didn’t disappoint Saturday evening as the Wildcats battled No. 11 Gulf Coast to a 2-2 draw.
In his collegiate debut, Zach Howard (Ocean Springs) picked up a pair of huge goals to help the Wildcats avoid defeat.
“It was a battle in the first game of the year, but I would’ve liked to have gotten a better result,” head coach Drew Gallant said. “They are a very good team, so putting the game away would’ve been nice. We went down twice and just kept battling. Tonight gave us a lot to work on.”
Although Pearl River (0-0-1 overall) dominated possession and opportunities in the first half, it was Gulf Coast (1-0-1) that opened the game’s scoring. Pearl River goalkeeper Cameron Kent (Brandon) made an incredible effort to send a ball flying out of bounds for an MGCCC corner kick. The Bulldogs promptly played the ball in and smashed a shot into the back of the net on the volley to take the lead in the 40th minute.
PRCC made some halftime adjustments and equalized in the 53rd. Emil Corfitzen (Copenhagen, Denmark) fought hard to keep a ball from going out of play, caught the Bulldog goalkeeper napping and fired a pass along the ground to the middle of the box. Howard was in perfect position for the pass, tapping it into the back of the net, 1-1.
“At halftime, we talked about what to do when the ball got to the line,” Howard said. “Coach told me to go to the near post, so that’s what I did, and the ball was there for the tap-in.”
Gulf Coast snatched the lead back in the 71st minute, linking up play nicely to slice a shot across goal and into the side of the net.
Howard was the hero once again a few minutes later. He dribbled down the pitch, found some space and unleashed a shot from over 20 yards out that zipped into the top left corner of the net, 2-2.
“We talked about taking chances in front of goal,” Howard said. “I saw that I had a chance, so I just decided to take it.”
Kent came up big for the Wildcats down the stretch, turning away several Bulldog opportunities. PRCC almost won the contest just before the game ended as Noah Fazal (Vaerloese, Denmark) broke away from the midfield and fired toward goal, but the MGCCC goalkeeper turned the shot away.
The game eventually ended in a draw in PRCC’s season debut.
NEXT UP
The Wildcats head to Jones College on Monday for a 7 p.m. match against No. 16 Jones College. The contest will be livestreamed at JCBobcats.com/watch.
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