Sixth-ranked EMCC Lions welcome Northeast for Saturday homecoming action

SCOOBA – Following a September sweep, the sixth-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College will welcome the visiting Northeast Mississippi Tigers for Saturday's EMCC Homecoming contest on the Scooba campus.  Kickoff for the MACCC North Division gridiron meeting is set for 2 p.m. at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field. 

Settled in at the No. 6 spot in the NJCAA's Division I football poll for the second straight week, the EMCC Lions are set to kick off October's slate on the heels of putting together a 5-0 month of September.  Following wins over MACCC South Division foes East Central (32-7) and Southwest Mississippi (49-7) to begin the season, the Lions have started MACCC North Division play with victories over Mississippi Delta (56-3), Holmes (49-7) and then-No. 13 Northwest Mississippi (30-21). 

Despite coming off a season-low scoring effort as well as giving up more than one score in a game for the first time this season during last week's 30-21 road win over the Northwest Rangers, East Mississippi continues to top the MACCC in scoring offense (43.2 ppg – 6^th in NJCAA) and scoring defense (9.0 ppg – 2^nd in NJCAA).

EMCC's high-scoring offense is engineered by sophomore quarterback Jamari Jones, who entered the week ranked tied for third nationally with an MACCC-high 15 touchdown passes after throwing for multiple scores for the fourth consecutive week and reaching the 300-yard passing mark (328) for the second time this year a week ago at Northwest.  Along with averaging 232.2 passing yards per game (3^rd in MACCC) and completing 62 percent of his passes this season, the Northwest Rankin High School product also ranks as EMCC's second-leading rusher on the year with 199 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.   

The Lions showcase five different receivers with double-digit catches on the season, led by Josh Aka (Starkville) and Jontarius Henderson (Laurel) with 20 receptions each.  Zach Patterson (Corinth) follows with 13 catches and a team-high four touchdown grabs, while Kevin Barnett (Oak Grove HS) and running back Zias Perryman (Laurel) are next with 11 and 10 receptions, respectively.

On the heels of his career-best, 129-yard rushing effort on 18 carries during last week's crucial road victory over Northwest Mississippi, Perryman rates as EMCC's leading ball carrier for the year with 310 rushing yards and a team-most four scores via the ground. 

Defensively as a team on the season, the Lions have totaled 37 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including 16 quarterback sacks.  Following his season-best, 13-tackle performance a week ago against the Rangers, Syracuse transfer Lee Kpogba (Winston-Salem, NC) has registered a team-high 43 total stops on the year.  South Florida transfer Trey Laing (Tallahassee, FL) and freshman defensive lineman Devonyal Lofton (Forest) share the club lead with five quarterback sacks each.  Within EMCC's defensive secondary, freshman strong safety Jeremy Mack Jr. (Clinton) is tied for second nationally with his three pass interceptions that were picked off during successive games. 

Guided by seventh-year head football coach Greg Davis, the 1-4 Northeast Mississippi Tigers are coming off last week's 31-17 home win over rival Itawamba.  NEMCC opened the season with a grueling four-game September stretch that resulted in setbacks to MACCC South Division powers Jones (41-17), Mississippi Gulf Coast (18-16) and Hinds (18-13) along with a division-opening 45-13 road loss to Northwest Mississippi. 

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 121-17 for an impressive .877 career winning percentage.  The Lions are unbeaten (12-0) in homecoming contests during the Stephens era, while he owns an 11-1 career mark versus Northeast.  Two years ago (Oct. 26, 2019) in homecoming action against the Tigers, the Lions clinched a state playoff berth with a 30-22 victory over Northeast in the regular-season finale.  In that most recent meeting, EMCC jumped out to a 30-0 lead over NEMCC early in the second half and then withstood three unanswered scores by the visitors to improve to 6-3 heading into 2019 playoff action.             

Saturday's EMCC-NEMCC Homecoming matchup 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 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.