Top-ranked EMCC bids to complete unbeaten regular season Thursday at Itawamba

SCOOBA – Having ascended to the No. 1 position in this week's NJCAA Division I football poll, the top-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College will bid for an unbeaten regular season by traveling to Fulton to take on the Itawamba Indians during Thursday's MACCC North Division action.  Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. at Eaton Field on the ICC campus.

Looking to complete their fifth undefeated regular season of the Buddy Stephens coaching era, the EMCC Lions will also be aiming to secure their 10^th MACCC North Division title outright since the 2008 season.  All four of East Mississippi's perfect regular seasons previously resulted in eventual conference titles and national championships (2011, 2013, 2014 & 2018). 

Having opened the current campaign unranked after opting out of the 2020 season due to health concerns caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the EMCC Lions entered the 2021 NJCAA Division I poll during Week 2 and stayed at No. 11 for two weeks before climbing to the No. 6 position during Weeks 4 and 5.  After inching up a notch to No. 5 in Week 6, a pair of subsequent two-place moves finds East Mississippi atop the NJCAA's weekly football rankings for the 30^th week overall dating back to the 2012 regular season.  The EMCC Lions have also been ranked No. 1 in the final NJCAA poll during their previous national championship seasons of 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018, while also having been preseason ranked No. 1 nationally six times (2012, 2014-16 & 2018-19).       

Regardless of the outcome of Thursday's EMCC-ICC game in Fulton, 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 EMCC's upcoming opening-round playoff game is set for 2 p.m. at Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus.  In addition, the nationally seventh-ranked Rangers of Northwest Mississippi have secured the MACCC North's No. 2 seed and will travel to the MACCC South Division regular-season winner for the other semifinal-round playoff game to be played on Nov. 6.  There is currently a three-way tie for first place in the MACCC South (4-1 records) between fourth-ranked Jones, No. 11 Hinds and 13^th-ranked Mississippi Gulf Coast.   

Having scored 30 or more points in every game to date this season, the Lions continue to rank sixth in NJCAA Division I football by averaging an MACCC-high 41.6 points per contest.  Defensively as the nation's second-ranked team in scoring defense (9.6 ppg), EMCC has thus far limited six of its eight opponents on the year to just one score.   

Individually for East Mississippi, sophomore quarterback Jamari Jones continues to top all of NJCAA football with 22 passing touchdowns on the season.  In addition to having thrown multiple scoring passes in six of EMCC's eight games, the Northwest Rankin High School product has completed 63.8 percent (134-of-210) of his passes and is averaging 212.9 passing yards per outing.  Jones is also the Lions' second-leading rusher this year with 402 yards and four touchdowns on the ground in 58 attempts.

Sophomore Zias Perryman (Laurel) leads East Mississippi with 481 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 96 carries, including back-to-back games with 100+ rushing yards (129 at Northwest & 101 vs. Northeast).  Arkansas transfer Montae Spivey (Phenix City, AL) is coming off a personal season-high effort of 77 rushing yards and his first rushing touchdown of the year last week at Copiah-Lincoln.

The Lions continue to be led in receiving by Joshua Aka (Starkville), who tops the team with 30 catches and 290 receiving yards.  Jontarius Henderson (Laurel) and Zach Patterson (Corinth) follow with 24 and 20 receptions, respectively.

Freshman kicker/punter Peyton Rodgers (Starkville) is tied for third among NJCAA Division I kickers with an MACCC-best 55 points scored on 40-of-43 PAT attempts and 5-of-7 accuracy on field goals.      

Defensively as a unit, East Mississippi has collectively recorded 52 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including 20 quarterback sacks, and has eight pass interceptions for the year.  Sophomore linebacker Lee Kpogba, a Syracuse transfer, leads the Lions with 67 total tackles on the season.

Guided by eighth-year head coach Sean Cannon, the ICC Indians are 3-5 overall and 2-3 in MACCC North Division play after falling, 41-13, at Northwest last week.  Itawamba's wins this season have come against Copiah-Lincoln (30-3) during Week 2 and back-to-back versus Mississippi Delta (34-21) and Holmes (37-7) to open the month of October.

EMCC's Stephens owns an 11-1 career mark against Itawamba (5-0 in Scooba; 5-1 in Fulton & 1-0 in West Point [2008]).  Most recently in the series (Sept. 12, 2019), the Lions claimed a 48-3 home win over ICC in Scooba after posting a 56-26 road victory over the Indians the year prior (Sept. 13, 2018) in Fulton.  Itawamba's lone win over East Mississippi during the Stephens era came in 2012 (24-23 in Fulton) to snap the Lions' 20-game win streak and deny them of another unbeaten regular season.    

Thursday's EMCC-ICC regular-season finale 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.