PERKINSTON — No. 11 Mississippi Gulf Coast has a rugged stretch of games to start the season, and the Bulldogs snatched a top-20 victory when Alexander Mink burst forward to score the winner with 90 seconds to play.
He gave Gulf Coast a 2-1 win over No. 16 Jones in the season opener at Bary Thrash Field. It was a perfectly executed give-and-go with Victor Moerck (So., Vaerlose, Denmark/Lyngby Handelsgymnasium) that sprung the Long Beach freshman into the box.
“I just had so much space,” Mink said. “Our coaches have told us center backs, that if we’re not winning by that much, we need a run to take space. I gave it to Vic, and he gave me a perfect setup. I just trusted my shot.”
Gulf Coast will have a quick turnaround before making the short trip to Poplarville on Saturday. The Bulldogs will play No. 15 Pearl River at 6 p.m. The game will be streamed at https://prccmedia.com/gold/ and tickets can be purchased at https://prccathletics.com/tickets.
They’ll play No. 9 Heartland in a neutral-site game in Senatobia next week.
“We asked for tough games,” Gulf Coast coach Chris Handy said. “That’s why we scheduled them. It was an extremely tough game. It’s the best thing we could have done. It shows us we have lots of work to do, but it’s a win over a ranked opponent. We’ll take that all day.”
It wasn’t the prettiest win, with the Bobcats causing problems across the field.
Gulf Coast got the opening goal in the 12th minute, though. The first corner of the game turned into the first goal of the season when Luke Hopkins (So., Clinton/Clinton) got just enough on his header to push it into the net.
Jones tied it up 62nd minute, setting up the drama at the end of the game.
“We try to encourage the guys to play free,” Handy said. “He’s a player who played multiple positions his whole life. I think he just saw a window to run forward, and we play systems that allow players to run forward. He took it upon himself. He’s a dangerous player.”
The Bulldogs will watch some tape and concentrate on rectifying some of their problems before Saturday.
“I don’t think we played our game that much at all,” Mink said. “We were struggling at first, but it’s a very big win for us.”
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This post originally posted at https://www.mgcccbulldogs.com/landing/index by MGCCC Athletics
