EMCC Lions ready for road opener at Southwest; Trey Laing earns MACCC defensive honors

SCOOBA – On the heels of their successful return to action following a 22-month hiatus from football competition, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College are set to make their 2021 gridiron road debut Thursday evening (Sept. 9) against the Southwest Mississippi Community College Bears.  Kickoff in Summit is slated for 7 p.m. at John I. Hurst Stadium on the SMCC campus.

Coach Buddy Stephens' 1-0 EMCC Lions received votes in this week's NJCAA Division I Football Poll after claiming a season-opening 32-7 home victory over East Central last Thursday on the Scooba campus.  A week ago under the direction of first-year defensive coordinator Chris Boone, EMCC held the visiting Warriors to just four first downs and only 95 yards of total offense during the contest.

Individually on the defensive side of the football, EMCC sophomore Trey Laing was named MACCC Co-Defensive Player of the Week for his season-opening efforts versus East Central.  In his EMCC debut, the South Florida transfer out of Tallahassee registered a team-high seven total tackles, including 1.5 quarterback sacks for 13 yards, while adding a pass interception and a QB hurry against the Warriors.

Offensively last week against ECCC, the Lions compiled 398 yards of total offense.  Along with 249 passing yards combined between Damon Stewart (15-33 for 176 yds) and Jamari Jones (7-13 for 73 yds), six ball carriers totaled 149 net rushing yards between them.  Starkville's KJ Lawrence and Arkansas transfer Montae Spivey led the way on the ground with 47 and 36 rushing yards, respectively.  In addition, eight different EMCC receivers caught at least one pass in the opener, led by Kevin Barnett's six grabs for 87 yards.

Featuring the head coaching debut of Cliff Collins, who previously served as EMCC's defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach prior to returning to his junior college alma mater last December, the Southwest Bears were also successful in their season opener by knocking off visiting Itawamba, 41-35, this past Saturday in Summit.

Along with Collins, Southwest's sidelines will also feature former EMCC assistant coaches Courtland Hays and Nestor Puertas, who currently serve as the Bears' first-year offensive and defensive coordinators, respectively.  All three were assistant coaches on Stephens' East Mississippi 2017 and 2018 staffs when the Lions won back-to-back national championships for the second time during a six-year span.

The EMCC Lions are 4-0 against Southwest Mississippi during the Stephens era with sizable victories over the Bears during successive seasons (2012-15).  Along with posting 69-point home efforts against SMCC in Scooba during the 2013 (69-0) and 2015 (69-20) campaigns, the Lions also easily prevailed on the Summit campus in 2012 (59-6) and 2014 (52-14). 

Thursday's EMCC-Southwest contest will be available via live-stream on BearTV at go.smccbears.tv.  The game will also 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.  The audio stream of the radio broadcast will be available at www.wfca.fm.