No. 9 EMCC Lions to host No. 7 Gulf Coast in MACCC football semifinals on Scooba campus

SCOOBA – Set to make their 15^th conference playoff appearance dating back to 2008, the nationally ninth-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College will play host to No. 7 Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College during Saturday's MACCC Football Semifinals on the Scooba campus. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. at EMCC's Sullivan-Windham Field.

The EMCC-MGCCC winner will advance to take on the winner of Saturday's other MACCC semifinal contest pitting MACCC South top seed/fifth-ranked Copiah-Lincoln against MACCC North second seed/fourth-ranked Northwest Mississippi during the upcoming MACCC Football Championship Game, set for Saturday, Nov. 15, at a site to be determined based on the semifinal-round results.   

Saturday's East Mississippi-Gulf Coast contest will feature a rematch of this year's season opener won by the preseason No. 10 Bulldogs, 41-21, over the visiting unranked Lions back on Aug. 28 at MGCCC's A.L. May Memorial Stadium in Perkinston.

Having returned only 13 players who saw game action for EMCC last season, the Lions then bounced back with consecutive home wins over Hinds (7-6) and Northwest Mississippi (34-28) before falling to .500 (2-2) on the year with a 34-24 setback at Itawamba on Sept. 18. Since then, East Mississippi has reeled off five straight wins over Coahoma (52-10), Northeast Mississippi (31-28), Pearl River (49-27), Mississippi Delta (28-13) and Holmes (50-39) to enter this year's MACCC playoffs sporting a 7-2 overall record, 5-1 division mark, and No. 9 national ranking in the current NJCAA Division I poll.

EMCC's five-game winning streak has been keyed by the combined offensive efforts of freshman quarterback Trey Irving III and sophomore running back Gavin Griffin. Last year's MHSAA Class 5A Mr. Football out of Gautier High School, Irving is the reigning MACCC Offensive Player of the Week after accounting for 391 yards of total offense and being responsible for three touchdowns, along with adding a two-point conversion run, in directing EMCC to last week's pivotal win over Holmes. Along with completing 15-of-27 passes for 202 yards and two touchdowns through the air, Irving rushed for a season-high 189 yards on 16 attempts in the Lions' regular-season finale. During his five games as EMCC's starting quarterback after Troy University commit Rodge Waldrop went down with an injury in Week 4, Irving has averaged 181.0 passing yards and 108.8 rushing yards per contest for a per-game average of 289.8 yards of total offense. He has completed 64.5 percent (80-of-124) of his passes for 905 yards and six touchdowns while having also averaged 9.2 yards per rush (544 yds on 59 att.) with five rushing touchdowns on the year.

Griffin, a two-time NJCAA and MACCC Offensive Player of the Week this season, currently leads NJCAA Division I football with 20 rushing touchdowns on the year and ranks second nationally (behind Butler's Markellus Bass) with an average of 121.7 rushing yards per game. The 2023 MHSAA Class 1A Mr. Football from Velma Jackson High School enters this year's postseason ranked fourth on EMCC's single-season chart (Buddy Stephens era) with 1,095 rushing yards to stand behind Deon McIntosh (1,150 in 2018), 2025 EMCC Sports Hall of Fame inductee Rod Moore (1,303 in 2011) and Lakenderic Thomas (1,334 in 2013). Griffin's 20 rushing touchdowns this season rank (Buddy Stephens era) only behind Tyrell Price's 24 running scores during EMCC's  2017 national championship season.

Guided by eighth-year head football coach Jack Wright, the seventh-ranked Bulldogs of Mississippi Gulf Coast begin postseason play with an 8-1 overall record as co-champions (5-1) of the MACCC's South Division with Co-Lin. MGCCC's lone loss of the year has been a 27-26 home setback to the Wolves back on Oct. 16 despite nearly erasing a 20-point, first-quarter deficit. Bulldog sophomore quarterback Landon Varnes presently tops all NJCAA Division I quarterbacks with an average of 313.4 passing yards per game along with 26 touchdowns through the air on the year.

Getting set to make their 15^th conference playoff appearance in the 18 seasons that Buddy Stephens has served as EMCC's head football coach, the Lions have posted an 18-5 (.783) composite record with nine conference (MACCC/MACJC) championships. During the Stephens era, EMCC is 9-0 in conference championship games and 9-5 in semifinal contests. With an overall 18-year head coaching record of 155-30 (.838), Stephens has guided the Lions to conference titles in 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022 and 2023 along with five national championships (2011, 2013, 2014, 2017 & 2018) and a dozen division crowns (2008-09, '11-16, '18, '21, '23 & '25).

Stephens owns a 12-6 career record against Mississippi Gulf Coast (8-3 in Scooba & 4-3 in Perkinston), including a 7-1 postseason mark versus the Bulldogs that features conference title game wins over MGCCC during the 2009 (75-71) and 2011 (42-17) seasons in Scooba. Though the Lions have dropped recent season-opening decisions to Gulf Coast (41-21 this season in Perkinston & 34-28 last year in Scooba), they have prevailed in the two most recent postseason meetings with the Bulldogs. In 2022, 14^th-ranked EMCC claimed a 38-27 semifinal playoff win over No. 12 Gulf Coast in Perkinston before posting a 36-28 road victory at second-ranked Northwest in the conference championship game. Two years ago, the eighth-ranked Lions earned a 33-21 home triumph over No. 6 MGCCC in the conference semifinals prior to knocking off No. 4 Copiah-Lincoln, 27-20, in the 2023 MACCC title tilt played in Scooba.     

 Saturday's EMCC-MGCCC semifinal-round playoff contest will be broadcast live by WFCA-FM (107.9), out of French Camp, with Jason Crowder and EMCC Sports Hall of Famer John Rice slated to provide the play-by-play and color commentary, respectively. Jevante McAdory is set to handle sideline reporting duties. The game's live-streamed audio will also be carried by EMCC's campus radio station, WGTC-FM (92.7), originating from the Golden Triangle campus in Mayhew. Along with EMCC's weekly live video-streamed football broadcasts being available in HD at emcclive.com, alternate audio streams of the Lions' radio broadcasts throughout the football season will also be accessible via wfca.fm.