Fifth-ranked EMCC Lions set to host No. 15 Coahoma in regular-season home finale
With two-thirds of the MACCC regular-season football slate in the books, the fifth-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College are set to play host to the No. 15 Coahoma Tigers during Thursday’s conference action on the Scooba campus. Marking EMCC’s final regular-season home contest, Thursday’s gridiron battle of nationally ranked MACCC North Division foes is slated for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Sullivan-Windham Field.
SCOOBA – With two-thirds of the MACCC regular-season football slate in the books, the fifth-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College are set to play host to the No. 15 Coahoma Tigers during Thursday's conference action on the Scooba campus. Marking EMCC's final regular-season home contest, Thursday's gridiron battle of nationally ranked MACCC North Division foes is slated for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Sullivan-Windham Field.
In conjunction with the season-long, 10-year anniversary of the opening of East Mississippi's current Sullivan-Windham Field facility, visiting members of EMCC's 2011 national championship football team are slated to be recognized at halftime of Thursday's EMCC-CCC contest and invited to a pregame tailgate.
Playing on a short week after overcoming seven turnovers during last Saturday's 34-19 Homecoming victory over Northeast Mississippi, the unbeaten EMCC Lions (6-0, 4-0 MACCC North) inched up one spot to No. 5 in this week's NJCAA Division I football poll. Previously during the month of September, East Mississippi followed interdivisional wins over East Central (32-7) and Southwest Mississippi (49-7) with MACCC North Division victories over Mississippi Delta (56-3), Holmes (49-7), nationally ranked Northwest Mississippi (30-21), and Northeast.
Continuing to lead the MACCC in scoring offense (41.7 ppg – 7th in NJCAA) and scoring defense (10.7 ppg – 2nd in NJCAA), the EMCC Lions feature three players ranked among the top-five individual statistical leaders nationally. With a pair of 300-yard passing games to his credit and four outings with two or more touchdown passes, sophomore quarterback Jamari Jones is tied for fourth among NJCAA leaders with 16 passing touchdowns on the season. In addition to averaging 228.7 yards per game through the air as a 63-percent passer, the Northwest Rankin High School product has also rushed for 282 yards and three touchdowns for the year.
On the strength of consecutive 100-yard rushing efforts versus Northwest (129) and Northeast (101) during his last two outings, sophomore running back Zias Perryman is tied for third nationally with six rushing touchdowns. The Laurel native also leads the Lions with 411 rushing yards on 80 attempts this season.
The Lions feature eight different receivers with eight or more catches on the season, led by Josh Aka (Starkville) and Jontarius Henderson (Laurel) with 23 and 22 grabs, respectively. Zach Patterson (Corinth) and Kevin Barnett (Oak Grove HS) follow with 15 receptions apiece. EMCC's 16 touchdown receptions for the year have been divided among eight different players, with Patterson leading the way with four scoring grabs.
Defensively as a team on the season, the Lions have totaled 43 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including 18 quarterback sacks. On the heels of recent back-to-back outings with double-figure tackles (13 vs. Northwest & 12 vs. Northeast), Syracuse transfer Lee Kpogba (Winston-Salem, NC) has registered a team-high 55 total stops on the year. South Florida transfer Trey Laing (Tallahassee, FL) and freshman defensive lineman Devonyal Lofton (Forest) continue to share the club lead with five quarterback sacks each. With EMCC totaling seven interceptions as a team for the season, freshman strong safety Jeremy Mack Jr. (Clinton) is tied for third nationally with his three pass interceptions coming during successive games.
Guided by second-year head coach Travis Macon, the 15th-ranked Coahoma Tigers are 4-2 overall and 3-1 in MACCC North Division play. After splitting decisions with MACCC South foes Hinds (21-14 win) and Pearl River (24-14 loss) to begin the season, Coahoma posted consecutive division victories over Itawamba (22-20), Mississippi Delta (21-6) and Holmes (41-10) to close out the month of September. Most recently, CCC's three-game win streak was snapped during last Thursday's 42-12 setback at nationally ranked Northwest Mississippi. A native of Starkville and formerly the defensive line coach for the Northwest Mississippi Rangers, Macon currently has former EMCC standouts Jaquez Johnson and Justin Lucas on his Coahoma coaching staff in charge of the Tigers' quarterbacks and linebackers, respectively.
Having reclaimed the top spot on the NJCAA's all-time list for highest career winning percentage among coaches with 100 or more career games coached, EMCC's Buddy Stephens owns a 13-season career coaching record of 122-17 for an impressive .878 career winning percentage. Stephens' teams have not lost to the Coahoma Tigers in the dozen previous meetings between the teams dating back to the 2008 season (6-0 in Scooba & 6-0 in Clarksdale). With Thursday's meeting set to mark the first time that both EMCC and Coahoma will have been ranked when facing one another on the gridiron, Stephens' EMCC teams are 41-11 all-time versus nationally ranked opponents (19-5 at home; 16-6 on the road & 6-0 at neutral sites).
Thursday's EMCC-Coahoma contest 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. 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 EMCCAthletics.com/live. Alternate audio streams of the radio broadcasts are also available at wfca.fm.