PERKINSTON – The Northwest men's soccer team opened the 2011 soccer season with a road split down south, falling 3-2 to Pearl River on Friday night but bouncing back to knock off Gulf Coast 1-0 on Saturday.

Northwest (1-1) took a 1-0 lead late in the first half of Friday's game versus the Wildcats, courtesy of freshman Jesse Moore's first goal of the year. The Wildcats would come back to tie the game minutes later.

But the Rangers couldn't keep that momentum in the second half, as Pearl River put two goals in the back of the net and held off Moore's second of the game, to take a 3-2 victory.

Garrett Head scored two goals for Pearl River and James Zanelli added the other. For Northwest, Nathan Smith and Fakhry Khulfan were each credited with assists.

The shots were identical, with each team taking 11, but Pearl River was clearly the more physical team drawing 13 fouls to the Rangers' four.

The Rangers bounced back in style on Saturday at Gulf Coast, picking up a huge 1-0 road win – their first win over the Bulldogs since 2003 and just the second in school history (2-8-1).

Khulfan's first goal of the year in the 6th minute proved to be the golden goal, with the sophomore taking the ball the length of the field and blasting it past the Bulldog keeper for the goal.

Gulf Coast owned a slight shot advantage and also dominated on corner kicks, 8-1, but in the end it was a 1-0 win for Northwest and a big road split.

John Denton picked up his first career shutout, stopping a career-high 10 shots to improve to 1-1.

Northwest (1-1) will look to keep the momentum going on Tuesday, Aug. 30, welcoming Jones County to Senatobia for a 4 p.m. kickoff. Follow live stats here: http://www.sidearmstats.com/northwestms/msoc/