WESSON — Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College bounced back from some adversity, and right into first place in the Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference’s South Division.

Landon Varnes threw four touchdown passes, including a 28-yarder to former Warren Central star Trey Hall, to lead Gulf Coast to a 27-20 victory over Copiah-Lincoln on Thursday.

No. 7 Gulf Coast (6-1, 4-1 MACCC South) rebounded after losing its first game of the season last week, and broke a tie with Co-Lin (4-3, 3-2) for first place in the division.

“Anytime you come off a tough loss, you’re ready to just play again,” Gulf Coast coach Jack Wright said. “You have to wait a week to do that and earn the right to do that with a good week of practice. We did that, and I really respect the way our kids handled that. They came in Sunday ready to go. We didn’t talk about last week a lot, we just got ready for Co-Lin.”

Tray Minor rushed for 73 yards for Co-Lin, and scored on an 8-yard run that gave his team a 10-0 lead in the first quarter.

Gulf Coast scored the next 20 points, however, to take the lead for good. Varnes threw touchdown passes of 70 and 15 yards to JP Coulter, and a 10-yard TD to Mason Beverly.

The 28-yard touchdown to Hall came with 7:47 left in the game and put Gulf Coast ahead 27-13.

“The game plan was a great game plan by Coach Wright,” Varnes said. “They gave us exactly what we wanted on the touchdowns I had. It came out perfect.”

Hall finished with 93 total yards — 56 rushing and 37 receiving — to go along with the receiving touchdown. Varnes completed 17 of 24 passes for 254 yards, with no interceptions.

Former Vicksburg High star Tyler Henderson caught three passes for 41 yards for Gulf Coast.
Coulter had five receptions for 118 yards, and Chandler Chapman led the Bulldogs with 90 rushing yards on 14 carries.

Holmes 27, Itawamba 24
Sophomore kicker Dan Lindsay made a 32-yard field goal with one second remaining to lift No. 6 Holmes Community College (7-0, 4-0 MACCC North) over No. 14 Itawamba Community College (5-2, 3-1).

Holmes outscored Itawamba 20-7 in the second half to remain undefeated.

Ty Davis was 15-for-26 passing for 160 yards and two touchdowns for Itawamba, which led 17-7 at halftime.

Holmes’ started its comeback with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Chase Richardson to B.J. Johnson with 9:15 left in the third quarter. Lindsay’s field goal and a 4-yard TD run by Richardson tied it with 6:33 left in the game, and then Lindsay’s 32-yard field goal gave the Bulldogs the win.

Richardson was 16-of-28 passing for 183 yards, with two passing touchdowns and one rushing TD.

Northwest Mississippi, Mississippi Delta 3
Qua Middlebrook rushed for 90 yards and a touchdown, D’mariun Pertee scored twice on the ground, and Northwest Mississippi (6-1, 4-0 MACCC North) outscored Mississippi Delta 28-0 in the second half to win easily on Thursday.

The game was tied 3-3 at halftime. Mississippi Delta (1-6, 0-4) missed a field goal in the first half, and had a 17-play, eight-minute drive net only three points.

Northwest Mississippi took control by scoring on all three of its possessions during the third quarter. Pertee had touchdown runs of 3 and 1 yards, and Zach Wilcke threw a 15-yard TD pass to K.D. Gibson to give the Rangers a 24-3 lead.

Middlebrook’s 11-yard TD run with 6:41 to go in the game capped the victory.

Wilcke was only 7-of-10 passing for 91 yards. Northwest rushed for 212 yards as a team, with Ja Keyes gaining 84 and Pertee 31.

Mississippi Delta only had 224 yards of total offense.

Pearl River 32, East Mississippi 28
Kabe Barnett threw two touchdown passes in the last five minutes, the second a 42-yarder to Martavious Reed with 1:08 remaining that gave Pearl River Community College (4-3) its first victory over East Mississippi (3-4) since 2008.

Pearl River trailed 25-12 late in the third quarter when Charvarius Garrett scored on a 15-yard fumble return. After East Mississippi’s Hayden Houpt kicked a 22-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter, Barnett hooked up with Javonta Caldwell for a 44-yard TD with 4:50 left and then the game-winner to Reed.

East Mississippi gained only two first downs on five possessions in the second half.

Barnett completed 15 of 24 passes in the game, for 236 yards and the two TDs. He also ran for 73 yards and a touchdown.

East Mississippi quarterback Ty Keyes as 19-of-45 passing for 290 yards and three touchdowns, and ran for 71 yards.