Reigning national and state champion EMCC Lions to host No. 5 Mississippi Gulf Coast in MACJC state semifinals
Set to make their seventh consecutive football playoff appearance under head coach Buddy Stephens, the second-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College will play host to the fifth-ranked Bulldogs of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College during Saturday's semifinals of the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges' state playoffs. Kickoff for Saturday's showdown of top-five MACJC gridiron powerhouses is slated for 2 p.m. at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field.
SCOOBA – Set to make their seventh consecutive football playoff appearance under head coach Buddy Stephens, the second-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College will play host to the fifth-ranked Bulldogs of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College during Saturday's semifinals of the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges' state playoffs. Kickoff for Saturday's showdown of top-five MACJC gridiron powerhouses is slated for 2 p.m. at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field.
In Saturday's other state semifinal-round matchup, 11th-ranked and MACJC South Division champion Copiah-Lincoln Community College will entertain MACJC North Division runner-up Northwest Mississippi Community College in Wesson. Saturday's winners will then battle for the 2014 MACJC state football championship the following Saturday (Nov. 8) at a site to be determined. Based on the league's rotational hosting policy, the highest-seeded MACJC South Division team remaining following this weekend's semifinals will serve as the host site for the Nov. 8 state title game. Otherwise, the highest-seeded remaining team from the MACJC's North Division will earn the hosting honor.
Sporting a current school-record, 21-game winning streak on the strength of five consecutive shutouts heading into postseason play, the 9-0 EMCC Lions are still ranked atop the JCGridiron.com and JCFootball.com national polls. Falling out of the No. 1 slot in the NJCAA's Top 20 for the first time this season, East Mississippi now stands five voting points (205 to 200) behind top-ranked Iowa Western Community College following the Reivers' 58-34 win over then-No. 4 Hutchinson [KS] CC this past Saturday. Including preseason rankings and final polls, EMCC has now been ranked first or second nationally by the NJCAA in 16 consecutive polls dating back to Week 7 of last season.
Saturday's EMCC-Gulf Coast contest will feature a rematch of last year's MACJC state semifinals, also played in Scooba, in which the host Lions claimed a 45-28 victory over the visiting Bulldogs before advancing to beat Jones County, 61-24, and claim their third MACJC/Region 23 football championship in five years. A season ago when they met in the state semifinals, EMCC and MGCCC were also ranked second and fifth, respectively, according to the NJCAA football poll, as they are this year.
This season, EMCC and Mississippi Gulf Coast presently rate as the only two teams among the NJCAA ranks to surrender an average of less than 10 points per contest on the year. Having collectively outscored their 2014 opposition 515-38 for the year and 269-0 during their current five-game shutout streak, the Lions are allowing a paltry 4.2 points an outing while scoring an average of 57.2 points a game. The Bulldogs, who average 36.8 points per game offensively for the season, rank second nationally in limiting their opponents to a per-game average of just 8.9 points.
Spanning back to the 2007 season, East Mississippi and Mississippi Gulf Coast have combined to claim six of the last seven MACJC state football championships. With each school having earned three state titles apiece during that eight-year stretch, the home-standing Lions previously bested visiting Gulf Coast, 75-71, in the memorable 2009 state title game played at the old Sullivan-Windham Field location. Two years later in the state championship contested at EMCC's current Sullivan-Windham Field site, the 2011 Lions claimed a 42-17 victory over the Bulldogs en route to capturing their first of two NJCAA national championships.
MGCCC most recently won state football crowns in 2010 (31-17 over Copiah-Lincoln), 2008 (52-7 over Pearl River) and 2007 (20-17 over Jones County). Copiah-Lincoln claimed the state title two years ago with a 41-37 road victory over the Bulldogs.
As further testimony to the significance of the recent EMCC-MGCCC gridiron rivalry, both schools rank among the NJCAA's top-five winningest football programs over the past seven seasons. Dating back to the 2008 campaign, the Lions' 65-10 (.867) composite record stands third nationally behind only Navarro [TX] College (68-12) and Butler [KS] Community College (67-12). With 64 wins since 2008, MGCCC is tied for fourth among NJCAA ranks with Rochester Tech during that span. Additionally, Mississippi Gulf Coast and East Mississippi own the longest current consecutive streaks of state football playoff appearances at eight and seven straight playoff berths, respectively. During that eight-year period (2007-2014), EMCC has collected six MACJC North Division titles while Gulf Coast has claimed five MACJC South Division crowns.
Having made just one previous state football playoff appearance (50-7 semifinal loss to Gulf Coast in 1984) in school history prior to Stephens' arrival on the Scooba campus, East Mississippi is 6-4 all-time during state playoff competition through the years. Stephens owns a 6-3 EMCC head coaching mark in MACJC postseason contests, while making state championship runs during prior odd-numbered years (2013, 2011 & 2009) and incurring semifinal-round setbacks in previous even-numbered seasons (2012, 2010 & 2008).
Unbeaten in three Scooba meetings with Gulf Coast since the Lions' new football facility opened in 2011, Stephens is 5-2 all-time versus the Bulldogs during his seven seasons at the EMCC football helm. Along with postseason victories over MGCCC last year as well as in 2011 and 2009, East Mississippi christened the new Sullivan-Windham-Field in 2011 by earning a 34-30 season-opening victory over the Bulldogs. Previously, Stephens' first EMCC team upset then-No. 2 Gulf Coast, 27-23, at Perkinston in 2008. The following year, the Lions rebounded from an early-season home loss (43-26) to the Bulldogs with their historic 75-71 home triumph (in regulation) during the 2009 state title game.
Under the guidance of first-year head football coach Chad Huff, Mississippi Gulf Coast is 8-1 overall on the year and finished second in the MACJC's South Division after dropping a 29-26 decision to Co-Lin two weeks ago during Homecoming festivities in Perkinston. Most recently, the Bulldogs rebounded to claim a 49-3 road decision over Itawamba this past Saturday in Fulton.
Saturday's state playoff contest between EMCC and MGCCC will be broadcast live by WMOX-AM (1010) out of Meridian. Jonathan Holmes and Glen Beard are set to describe the play-by-play action with John Lyle Briggs serving as the Lions' sideline reporter. An alternate audio stream of the radio broadcast will also be available at www.wfcafm108.com courtesy of WFCA-FM Radio out of French Camp.
In addition, EMCC's weekly live video-streamed football broadcasts (http://www.ustream.tv/channel/emcc-football) will be available in HD by accessing EMCC's athletics website, www.EMCCAthletics.com.