No. 6 EMCC set to host No. 4 Gulf Coast to close out home stand with key top-10 showdown

SCOOBA – The sixth-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College aim to successfully close out their current three-game football home stand by playing host to the fourth-ranked Mississippi Gulf Coast Bulldogs during Thursday's key inter-divisional MACCC contest to be played on the Scooba campus. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field.

Thursday's highly anticipated top-10 showdown will also feature a halftime recognition of the five newest members of EMCC's Sports Hall of Fame, which consists of football all-Americans Lew Cornelius (1959-61) and Jaquez Johnson (2011-12), retired women's basketball coach and men's golf coach Dale Peay (1985-2015), baseball all-America pitcher Rusty Sanchez (1985-86), and all-region softball pitcher Courtney Nunn (2008-10).

The reigning MACCC champion EMCC Lions enter this week's contest against unbeaten Gulf Coast with a 2-1 overall record and 1-0 division mark after bouncing back from their season-opening 23-20 road setback at Copiah-Lincoln with consecutive home victories over then-No. 4 Jones College (47-23) and Holmes (65-17). Last week's decisive 48-point win over Holmes marked EMCC's highest single-game point total since the Lions' 2017 national championship season. The contest was also highlighted by six touchdown passes thrown by repeat MACCC Offensive Player of the Week Ty Keyes as well as pick-sixes by defensive backs Shannon Blair and Bakari McCall.

Keyes, a transfer quarterback from Southern Miss, followed up his previous week's NJCAA and MACCC Offensive Player of the Week performance by throwing for 472 yards and six scores on 27-of-35 (77%) passing a week ago against Holmes. While registering the seventh-highest, single-game passing yardage total during the Buddy Stephens coaching era (since 2008), Keyes connected on scoring tosses of 75, 49, 40, 24, 20, and 16 yards. He also picked up 24 rushing yards on two attempts to give him 496 yards of total offense last week versus the Bulldogs.

For the season through the first three games, Keyes is averaging an NJCAA-leading 355.3 passing yards per game on 75-of-114 (65.8%) accuracy that ranks third nationally. The former two-time Mississippi Gatorade Football Player of the Year at Taylorsville High School is also currently tied for second among NJCAA Division I quarterbacks with a dozen touchdown passes on the year.

Keyes' top receiving target thus far has been University of Memphis transfer Cam Wright, who ranks seventh nationally with an average of 5.7 catches per game and tied for eighth with 82.3 receiving yards an outing. During last week's win over Holmes, the South Panola High School product posted season highs with eight grabs for 133 receiving yards and two touchdowns.

Defensively as a team through the first three weeks, the Lions have totaled 27 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including 16 quarterback sacks.

Guided by sixth-year head coach Jack Wright, the No. 4 MGCCC Bulldogs are 3-0 on the year following home triumphs over Northwest Mississippi (49-14) and Itawamba (50-0) prior to last week's 55-33 come-from-behind road win at Southwest Mississippi.

Heading into Thursday's meeting, Mississippi Gulf Coast is averaging an NJCAA-best 51.3 points per game, while East Mississippi is fourth nationally at 44.0 points per contest. In total offense yards, MGCCC (519.0 yds/gm) and EMCC (471.3 yds/gm) are currently ranked second and fifth, respectively, among NJCAA Division I teams. Through the air, the Lions stand second nationally with an average of 368.3 passing yards an outing, while Gulf Coast is fifth at 282.0 passing yards per game.

EMCC's Stephens owns an 11-3 career record (7-1 in Scooba & 4-2 in Perkinston) against Mississippi Gulf Coast, including wins over the Bulldogs during nine of the last 10 meetings between the two teams. Last season, the Lions earned a pair of road wins over MGCCC at A.L. May Memorial Stadium. After erasing a 24-point deficit midway through the third quarter of their regular-season meeting (Sept. 22) to pull off a stunning 48-45 come-from-behind victory, EMCC returned to Perkinston six weeks later (Nov. 5) to claim a 38-27 road win in the MACCC Semifinals en route to capturing the program's eighth conference championship in 14 years a week later at Northwest Mississippi. Stephens' EMCC teams are 6-1 in playoff meetings against Mississippi Gulf Coast, including conference title game victories over the Bulldogs during the 2009 (75-71) and 2011 (42-17) seasons in Scooba.

Thursday's marquee matchup between the EMCC Lions and the MGCCC Bulldogs will be broadcast live by WFCA-FM (107.9), out of French Camp, with Jason Crowder and Glen Beard slated to provide the play-by-play and color commentary, respectively. Anthony Craven is set to handle the sideline reporting duties. The game's live-streamed audio will also be carried by SuperTalk Mississippi (WZKR-FM 103.3), out of Meridian, as well as through EMCC's campus radio station, WGTC-FM (92.7), originating from the Golden Triangle campus in Mayhew. In addition, EMCC's weekly live video-streamed football broadcasts will be available in HD at emcclive.com. Alternate audio streams of the radio broadcasts are also available at wfca.fm.