Ninth-ranked EMCC Lions look to bounce back at home against Coahoma

SCOOBA – Looking to bounce back for the second time this season, the ninth-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College stay at home to play host to the Coahoma Tigers during Thursday's MACCC North Division football action on the Scooba campus. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field.

The EMCC Lions, 3-2 overall and 1-1 in division play on the year, maintained their top-10 national ranking among the NJCAA's Division I teams this week despite dropping a 38-21 home decision to fourth-ranked Northwest Mississippi last Thursday. With wins over Copiah-Lincoln (38-0), Holmes (45-9) and Mississippi Gulf Coast (48-45), EMCC's other setback this year came on the road to now-No. 5 Jones College (42-28) during Week 2.

Last week's home loss to No. 4 Northwest marked just the fourth time in 56 games played that the Lions have fallen at their current home football facility. With a 52-4 (.929) composite home record at the current site of Sullivan-Windham Field since opening prior to EMCC's first national championship season, EMCC's other home setbacks since 2011 have been one-point conference playoff losses to Hinds (42-41 in OT) last year and Copiah-Lincoln (47-46) in 2012 along with a previous regular-season defeat (56-36) to Northwest in 2019.

Guided by third-year head football coach Travis Macon, Coahoma is also 3-2 overall and 1-1 in MACCC North Division play on the season. After beginning the year 3-0 and ranked 15^th nationally following wins over East Central (52-28), Southwest Mississippi (28-15) and Mississippi Delta (47-10), the Tigers have since fallen to Holmes (28-21 in OT) and last week at Copiah-Lincoln (35-10).

The Coahoma football coaching staff features former EMCC linebacker and two-time NJCAA champion Justin Lucas, who was a member of the Lions' back-to-back undefeated teams (12-0 both years) during the 2013 and 2014 seasons. The Aberdeen native continued his college playing career at Troy University and currently serves as Coahoma's co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

EMCC's 15^th-year head football coach Buddy Stephens owns an unblemished 13-0 career record against the Coahoma Tigers (7-0 in Scooba & 6-0 in Clarksdale). Most recently, the Lions prevailed, 52-6, over the Tigers last year in Scooba and previously, 55-20, during the 2019 season in Clarksdale. The Lions have scored 42 points or more during each of the prior 13 EMCC-CCC gridiron meetings under Stephens' guidance dating back to the 2008 season.    

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. Chris Coleman is set to do the sideline reporting. 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.