No. 3 EMCC Lions travel to Copiah-Lincoln for non-division football finale

SCOOBA – Moving up two notches to No. 3 in this week's NJCAA Division I football poll, the unbeaten Lions of East Mississippi Community College will close out their inter-divisional MACCC football slate by taking on the Copiah-Lincoln Wolves Thursday evening (Oct. 21) in Wesson.  Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. at H.L. Stone Stadium on the Co-Lin campus.

Currently with their highest national ranking of the season, the 7-0 EMCC Lions most recently clinched a share of their 10^th MACCC North Division regular-season title of the Buddy Stephens coaching era (since 2008) with last Thursday's 52-6 home win over the Coahoma Tigers.  Now 5-0 in MACCC North play, East Mississippi will have an opportunity to win the division outright with a win at Itawamba next Thursday (Oct. 28).  The Lions have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the MACCC's North Division standings and will play host to the MACCC South Division's No. 2 seed in the upcoming MACCC Football Semifinals on Saturday, Nov. 6.  Kickoff for upcoming opening-round playoff action is set for 2 p.m. at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field.

On the heels of their second 50-point outing of the season with last week's win over Coahoma, the Lions entered the week ranked sixth in NJCAA Division I football averaging an MACCC-high 41.7 points per game on the year.  Defensively, EMCC continues to rank second nationally (behind Snow) in allowing the opposition an average of only 10 points per contest.  The Lions have limited five of their seven opponents to just one score thus far this season.   

Individually for East Mississippi, sophomore quarterback Jamari Jones tops all of NJCAA football with 20 passing touchdowns on the season.  In addition to having thrown multiple scoring passes in five of EMCC's first seven games, the Northwest Rankin High School product has completed 64.1 percent (116-of-181) of his passes and is averaging 219 passing yards per outing.  Jones is also the Lions' second-leading rusher this year with 337 yards and four touchdowns on the ground in 45 attempts.

Sophomore Zias Perryman leads East Mississippi with 419 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 82 carries, including recent back-to-back games with 100+ rushing yards (129 at Northwest & 101 vs. Northeast).  The Laurel native also tops the Lions with 54 points scored on the season, including three touchdown receptions.

Featuring nine different players who have caught scoring passes this year, the Lions continue to be led in receiving by Joshua Aka (Starkville) and Jontarius Henderson (Laurel) with 25 and 22 overall receptions, respectively.  Zach Patterson (Corinth) tops EMCC with 268 receiving yards and six scoring grabs on the season.  

Freshman kicker/punter Peyton Rodgers (Starkville) ranks seventh among NJCAA Division I kickers with 50 points scored on 38-of-41 PAT attempts and 4-of-6 accuracy on field goals. 

Defensively as a unit, East Mississippi has collectively recorded 46 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including 19 quarterback sacks, and has seven pass interceptions for the year.  Sophomore linebacker Lee Kpogba, a Syracuse transfer, leads the Lions with 60 total tackles on the season, while freshman strong safety Jeremy Mack Jr., from Clinton, has picked off a team-high three pass interceptions.

The 3-4 Wolves of Copiah-Lincoln are guided by 18^th-year head football coach Glenn Davis, who owns the longest consecutive tenure of any current MACCC head coach.  Co-Lin is 3-2 in MACCC South Division action this season after most recently knocking off East Central, 20-17 in overtime, last week in Decatur.  The Wolves have also beaten Southwest (39-21) and Pearl River (48-15) in division play, while having lost to Gulf Coast (14-13) and Hinds (23-14).  Co-Lin opened the current campaign with consecutive road setbacks to MACCC North foes Northwest (31-12) and Itawamba (30-3).   

Co-Lin's defensive coordinator is William J. Jones III, who previously coached alongside Buddy Stephens at Pearl River (2001-07) before joining EMCC's head coach on the Lions' staff as defensive coordinator for a five-year stint (2008-12).    

EMCC's Stephens owns a 5-3 career mark against Copiah-Lincoln (2-2 in Wesson & 3-1 in Scooba).  Most recently in the series, the Lions earned a 31-7 home win over Co-Lin in the 2018 state semifinals en route to claiming their seventh conference football championship during a 10-year span (2009-18).  The most recent Lions-Wolves gridiron matchup in Wesson (Sept. 3, 2015) resulted in EMCC having its 25-game winning streak snapped with a 31-24 overtime setback.  The previous year (Nov. 8, 2014) in Wesson, the visiting Lions posted a 54-15 victory over Co-Lin in the conference championship game played at H.L. Stone Stadium.  

Thursday's EMCC contest at Co-Lin 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, with Chris Coleman handling 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 EMCCAthletics.com/live.  Alternate audio streams of the radio broadcasts are also available at wfca.fm.