Vicksburg’s Tyler Henderson shined for MGCCC on Saturday

PERKINSTON, Miss. (MGCCC Athletics)— Vicksburg native Tyler Henderson put on a show last night for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College last night. In the 40-23 win over Southwest CC Mississippi, Henderson had eight catches, 180 receiving yards, and two touchdowns.

Henderson’s touchdown passes came from quarterback Landon Varnes in the first and fourth quarters for 29 and 28 yards. As of now, Henderson has 440 receiving yards and three receiving touchdowns as the Bulldogs have a 4-0 record.

Game summary from MGCCC Athletics:

 No. 5 Mississippi Gulf Coast scored three unanswered touchdowns to run past feisty Southwest Mississippi on Saturday night for a 40-23 Homecoming victory at A.L. May Memorial Stadium.

Tyler Henderson (So., Vicksburg/Vicksburg) had eight catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns, and Taurean Davis (So., Quitman County/DeSoto Central) had 13 tackles and an interception for the Bulldogs.

“We know we are explosive,” Gulf Coast coach Jack Wright said. “We made plays when we needed to. You always wish you could be more consistent. I think that’s what we’re working towards is to be more consistent, but that’s difficult in this conference. There’s so many good players on defense, so many people are capable on that side of the ball of disrupting what you’re doing. And you just got to overcome that all the time.”

Gulf Coast stayed unbeaten after four games, two of them in the South Division. The Bulldogs won Homecoming for the sixth straight time under Wright, who has the most wins of any Gulf Coast coach who has been undefeated on Homecoming.

Southwest (2-2, 1-1) took the lead on the third play of the second half on a 49-yard run. After Aiden Guinn‘s second field goal of the night tied it at 20, Southwest got one of their own.

The Bulldogs scored on three of their next four possessions to take charge — the three scoring drives combined for less than six minutes of possession. Mason Beverly (Fr., Hattiesburg/Purvis) caught the first two, an 8-yarder and a 16-yarder from Landon Varnes.

The last was a jump ball in the back of the end zone that Henderson hauled in for his second score of the night.

“He’s the complete package,” Wright said. “What people don’t see is what he does in faking, what he does in blocking in the run game. Any good receiver can look up and see when he’s not going to be open on a route package. He runs his route full speed anyway. He’s just a great player, and I’m really proud that he’s on our team.”

Varnes, the sophomore from Brandon, completed 22 of 30 passes for 389 yards and five touchdowns, with one interception. Jordan Whittle(So., Seattle, Wash./Lynwood) had the other TD catch, a 3-yarder that capped off a scoring drive on the first drive of the game.

Alan Woods (Fr., Jacksonville, Fla./University Christian) and Elijah Jones-Crosby (Fr., Laurel/West Jones) combined for 123 yards on 26 carries, averaging 4.7 yards a touch.

The Regulators held the Bears under 300 total yards, and just 100 yards rushing. Southwest averaged 223.3 yards on the ground in the first three games, and outside the long run for the go-ahead touchdown, the Bulldogs allowed less than 1.6 yards per carry.

“They wanted to run the football,” Wright said. “They’ve got really strong, good running backs, and we were going to have to tackle them over and over and over again. They know how to run the football. So it was just kind of a test of that tonight.”

Davis’ interception set up the second Gulf Coast touchdown, and La’Zeric Johnson (Fr., Eight Mile, Ala./Blount) had one in the second half.

The Bulldogs head to Poplarville on Thursday after a short week of preparation. They’ll take on their archrivals at 7 p.m.

 “I know how things go in the South, with us being in 4-0, we’ve got a target on our back,” Wright said. “Everybody’s going to play hard against us. I think our players figured that out last week, to be honest with you. So we’ve got to be on point. Every time we come in this building for a meeting, or for weights, or for a practice, we’ve got to be on point.”