No. 3 EMCC Lions improve to 8-0 with 31-7 road win over Copiah-Lincoln

WESSON – In their non-division, regular-season finale, the third-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College remained undefeated on the year with a 31-7 road win over the Copiah-Lincoln Wolves during Thursday night MACCC football action played at H.L. Stone Stadium on the Co-Lin campus.

Having already clinched a share of their 10^th MACCC North Division regular-season football title during the Buddy Stephens coaching era (since 2008), the EMCC Lions will travel to Fulton on Thursday (Oct. 28) with an opportunity to claim the division crown outright by knocking off Itawamba during final regular-season action.

Thursday's action at Co-Lin began with the Lions marching 75 yards on 13 plays to move ahead 6-0 on Jamari Jones' 5-yard scoring pass to Duke Miller at the 9:44 mark.  A low snap from center on the extra-point try prevented a PAT attempt from being kicked.

In their next scoring drive that began on their own 5-yard line late in the opening quarter, the visitors took another 5:20 off the game clock by mostly staying on the ground before capping the 12-play drive with Jones again connecting with Miller from 29 yards out for the score.  Jones bolted up the middle for the successful two-point conversion to increase EMCC's lead to 14-0 one minute into the second quarter.

Co-Lin's best chance to get on the scorebook during the opening half of play came late in the half following a 13-play, 74-yard drive that used up 7:25 on the game clock.  However, Bryce Lofton's 34-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left with 1:10 left before halftime.

With ball possession to kick off the second half, the home-standing Wolves recorded their lone score of the contest when quarterback Paul Hargrave rolled out and found Tyquan Henderson at the goal line, who seemingly wrestled the ball away from an EMCC defender at the goal line as they both fell into the end zone.  The 47-yard touchdown toss on a third-and-10 play at the 13:12 mark cut the Lions' lead to 14-7.

The Lions promptly answered by taking advantage of a short field following a Co-Lin penalty and a subsequent kickoff out of bounds.  EMCC's Peyton Rodgers booted his fifth field goal of the season – a 23-yarder – to make it a 17-7 contest with 10:17 left in the third quarter.

While holding Co-Lin scoreless in the fourth quarter on the way to limiting their sixth opponent to just a single score in a game this season, the Lions added some cushion to their lead with a pair of game-sealing touchdowns over the final 12 minutes of play.

Capping a nine-play, 80-yard drive that began late in the third quarter and consisted of eight rushing plays, EMCC's Ethan Conner reached the end zone on a 4-yard keeper to extend the lead to 24-7 with 11:42 remaining in the game.

After the two teams traded pass interceptions and following a three-and-out by Co-Lin midway through the quarter, the Lions ate up an additional five minutes on the game clock by running the ball 10 consecutive times on their final scoring drive of the game.  Montae Spivey capped off a personal season-best outing by scoring his first rushing touchdown of the year on an 11-yard burst at the 2:12 mark.  The Arkansas transfer finished with a season-high 77 rushing yards on 16 attempts.    

Also for the winners, Jones threw for 170 yards and two touchdowns on 18-of-29 passing in addition to rushing for 65 yards on 13 attempts.  His top target on the evening was Joshua Aka, who had five catches for 65 yards.

Following Thursday's regular-season finale at Itawamba with a chance to claim the MACCC North Division championship outright, the 8-0 EMCC Lions will return home to open the 2021 MACCC Football Playoffs by playing host to the MACCC South Division's No. 2 seed on Saturday, Nov. 6.  Kickoff for the upcoming semifinal-round contest is set for 2 p.m. at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus.