No. 5 EMCC travels to No. 9 Jones College for MACCC battle of top-10 gridiron foes
Set to make their first of three consecutive road outings this month, the fifth-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College will travel to Ellisville on Thursday to take on No. 9 Jones College. This week’s MACCC gridiron battle of top-10 teams is slated for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Bobcat Stadium at Sim Cooley Field.
SCOOBA – Set to make their first of three consecutive road outings this month, the fifth-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College will travel to Ellisville on Thursday to take on No. 9 Jones College. This week's MACCC gridiron battle of top-10 teams is slated for a 7 p.m. kickoff at Bobcat Stadium at Sim Cooley Field.
Thursday's EMCC-Jones 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 emcclive.com. Alternate audio streams of the radio broadcasts are also available at wfca.fm.
Up a notch this week from their No. 6 preseason NJCAA Division I preseason ranking, 15th-year head coach Buddy Stephens' EMCC Lions kicked off the 2022 season by scoring 35 second-half points during last Thursday's 38-0 home shutout win over Copiah-Lincoln. In breaking open a tight 3-0 contest at the half, the home-standing Lions scored touchdowns on five of their first six possessions following the halftime break on the way to accumulating a well-balanced 276 yards of total offense (139 rushing & 137 passing) in the second half alone.
Headlined by three pass interceptions and eight tackles for loss by EMCC's defensive unit, including four quarterback sacks, last week against the visiting Wolf Pack, the Lions registered the program's 24th shutout during the Stephens coaching era that dates back to the 2008 season.
Individually for the EMCC Lions in their season-opening victory over Co-Lin, Memphis transfer quarterback Peter Parrish accounted for 224 yards of total offense and a pair of touchdowns by completing 22-of-30 passes for 180 passing yards and running for 44 yards in 11 attempts. Amariyon Howard led the way for EMCC on the ground with 47 rushing yards and two touchdowns on seven carries, while Josh Aka and Carl Robinson each hauled in a team-high five passes. Defensively for the Lions, sophomores Jamori Evans and Jadden Matthews along with Tulane transfer Reggie Neely all had pass interceptions a week ago.
Guided by seventh-year head coach Steve Buckley, the ninth-ranked Jones Bobcats also opened the current season with a shutout victory by posting a 44-0 home triumph over Itawamba a week ago in Ellisville. Sophomore running back Robert Henry was named MACCC Offensive Player of the Week after rushing for 190 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries versus the Indians, including runs of 79 and 45 yards.
EMCC's Stephens owns an 8-2 career record (5-0 in Scooba & 3-2 in Ellisville) against Jones College with half of those wins over the Bobcats coming during conference playoff action. In the most recent meeting between the two teams four years ago (Nov. 10, 2018) in Ellisville, the visiting top-ranked Lions overcame a 14-7 deficit by scoring a pair of 70+ yard touchdowns in the second half to post a 19-14 win over No. 4 Jones and claim their seventh conference championship during a 10-year span (2009-18). EMCC then went on to earn a slim 10-9 victory over second-ranked Garden City [KS] in the 2018 NJCAA eTeamSponsor Football National Championship Game played in Pittsburg, Kan., to record the program's fifth national title over an eight-year stretch (2011-18).
In that conference championship clash between EMCC and Jones in 2018, the Lions were led offensively by current Dallas Cowboys practice squad player and former Ole Miss wide receiver Dontario Drummond, who had six catches for 132 receiving yards and two touchdowns versus the Bobcats, including a 73-yarder in the third quarter from TyQuan Ulmer. Former EMCC running back Deon McIntosh, who finished out his collegiate career at Washington State, had a game-high 112 rushing yards on 17 attempts, including a 71-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Jones College was quarterbacked that season by Stetson Bennett, who completed 17-of-31 passes for 215 yards and one touchdown (w/3 INTs) for the Bobcats against EMCC, before moving on to help lead the Georgia Bulldogs to last season's College Football Playoff National Championship as the title game's Offensive MVP.
In previous conference playoff meetings between EMCC and Jones, the Lions earned a 24-20 road win over the Bobcats during 2017 semifinal-round action before notching a memorable 67-66 double-overtime victory the following week at Northwest Mississippi in the championship contest. Prior to that, the Lions recorded postseason home wins over Jones during the 2013 conference championship game (61-24) and in the 2009 conference semifinals (26-16). In 2009, EMCC went on to secure the school's first football conference championship with a notable 75-71 home triumph over Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Jones College's most recent football win over EMCC came during the 2016 season opener when the short-handed Lions dropped a narrow 27-25 decision in Ellisville. Beginning with that contest, the last four gridiron meetings between the Lions and Bobcats have been decided by an average margin of just six points per game.