SCOOBA — Eli Anderson is no stranger to big games at Sullivan-Windham Field. He’s just used to having them while wearing red instead of gold.

After throwing for 2,228 yards and 15 touchdowns last season for East Mississippi Community College, Anderson transferred to Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, and in his return to Scooba, he was responsible for all six touchdowns against his former team as the No. 4 Bulldogs pulled away from the No. 6 Lions on Thursday night, 42-17.

“We didn’t prepare for Eli. We prepared for Gulf Coast,” EMCC head coach Buddy Stephens said. “We were preparing to stop the run and not Eli. We were preparing to try to score against their defense, and that was unsuccessful. We were trying to run the ball against their defense, and that was very unsuccessful.”

Anderson completed 18 of 32 passes for 273 yards and five touchdowns without an interception, and also rushed for 22 yards and a score. The Lions’ quarterbacks, meanwhile, were a combined 20-of-50 for 235 yards with a touchdown and three interceptions.

Following an EMCC three-and-out on the first possession of the game, Anderson and the Gulf Coast offense went right to work as he found Aydan Morgan for a 16-yard touchdown to open the scoring. The Lions went three-and-out again, and this time the Bulldogs struck even more quickly, with Anderson going deep to Jay Dupree for a 53-yard touchdown.

“I couldn’t let it get too personal, but I knew what they run,” Anderson said. “I’ve been around it in practice for a year. We ran the ball well last week, so I could see them preparing to stop that. Once they prepared to stop that, we just had to come back and hit them in the pass game, and it worked out pretty well.”

Down 14-0 not even halfway through the first quarter, EMCC (2-2) responded with a sustained drive, going 75 yards in 15 plays. Quarterback Ty Keyes found paydirt on a 3-yard scramble to put the Lions on the board and cut the deficit in half.

The teams then traded punts into the second quarter until Keyes made his first big mistake, throwing a deep ball on a third-and-10 from his own 27 that was intercepted by Kionte Curry. Anderson methodically led Gulf Coast (4-0) down the field and again connected with Dupree for the touchdown, this time from 17 yards out for a 21-7 lead that would hold up as the halftime score.

“They played sound, they played fundamentally,” Stephens said. “They lined up in what they did all year; they’re not going to change what they do and they did it better than we did. I was disappointed with some of the character things that happened with us tonight, and we’re going to do whatever we can to fix it this coming week.”

EMCC caught a huge break to start the second half when Jordan McKnight forced the Bulldogs’ Trey Hall to fumble the kickoff return, and Ajaveon Hatten recovered at the Gulf Coast 24-yard line. But the Lions could only come away with a field goal off of the turnover and still trailed by two scores.

After each team went three-and-out, Anderson went back to his big-play receiver, Dupree, who slipped past the EMCC defense on his way to a 61-yard catch-and-run for his third touchdown of the night.

Keyes and the Lions punched back — the Southern Miss transfer connected with Marcus Harris over the middle on the hosts’ next drive, and Harris sped past the secondary for a 41-yard touchdown. But one play after EMCC got the ball back following a turnover on downs, Keyes went deep down the middle and Curry came down with his second interception of the night.

“I knew they would complete some things, but I was surprised that we didn’t throw the ball as well as we could,” Stephens said. “I was surprised we didn’t run the ball as well as we could. We knew they were a good offense and defense, but we just have to execute.”

The Lions had another chance to pull within one score after Tyrane Stewart blocked a 21-yard Bulldogs field goal attempt early in the fourth quarter, but were forced to punt after picking up just one first down. Anderson accounted for two more touchdowns in the final period — one on a 9-yard run and one on a 13-yard shovel pass to Dayan Bilbo — to turn the game into a blowout.

EMCC, which defeated Gulf Coast twice last season en route to a conference title, is at Northwest Mississippi Community College next Thursday night.

“I’m not worried about who we play,” Stephens said. “It’s all going to depend on us being good at us, and tonight, we weren’t good at us. It’s my responsibility.”