Football | 9/19/2017 11:56:00 AM

ELLISVILLE – The preliminaries are over.
It's time for MACJC South Division play for the Jones County Junior College Bobcats.
JCJC, 2-1, begins division play at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bobcat Stadium/Sim Cooley Field against No. 20 Copiah-Lincoln, also 2-1. The game will air on www.jcjc.tv and on the Jones County Junior College Facebook page on Facebook Live with Mark Easley and Chris Robinson on the call.
Bobcat head coach Steve Buckley know the Wolves of head coach Glenn Davis will be a formidable foe, especially coming off a 21-14 division loss to Mississippi Gulf Coast.
"They are kind of in the same position we were in last year after we lost to them," he said. "I've known Glenn a long time. He is a great football coach and does a great job of recruiting."
Co-Lin defeated Mississippi Delta 31-6 and Coahoma 34-6 before falling to MGCCC last week.
They fell behind the Bulldogs 14-0, but battled back to tie the game at 14-14 in the third quarter. Co-Lin had the ball at the MGCCC 1-yard line early in the fourth quarter, but after a series of penalties, failed to score. The Bulldogs then drove down for the game-winning touchdown with under five minutes to play.
On defense, the Wolves are led by defensive back Swayze Bozeman (6-3, 200) of Tri-County Academy, defensive back Graham Eklund (6-0, 195) of Jackson Prep and defensive back Tyler Glass (6-1, 197) of Greenwood. Bozeman had 8 tackles and 2 tackles for loss last week, Graham Eklund had 6 tackles and Glass had 5 tackles and a 62-yard interception return.
Co-Lin defensive lineman Barry Howard (6-1, 225) of Hollandale-Simmons has 3 sacks on the season.
"They have tremendous speed on the back end of their defense and their linebackers can run," Buckley said. "They are very physical up front. Defensively, they are very multiple and can cause you problems."
On offense, Auburn transfer Woody Barrett (6-2, 230) of Orlando, Florida, guides the Co-Lin attack. Barrett passed for 161 yards and ran for another 32 yards last week. The Wolves will utilize two tailbacks in Rico Owens (5-9, 210) of Greenwood and Deion Dampier (5-10, 220) of Mendenhall.
"Offensively, they have an athletic quarterback and they are big up front in the line," Buckley said. ""They are explosive on offense. They play two tailbacks who are both really good."
Co-Lin has one of the top special teams units in the state, led by Pascagoula sophomore Griffin Sublett (6-0, 180), who handles all of their kicking duties.
"They are very good in the kicking game," Buckley said. "You see their team speed in the kicking game, especially on kickoff coverage. It will be a challenge."
JCJC opened the season with a 47-34 loss to No. 2 East Mississippi. They then beat Mississippi Delta 51-10 and downed Coahoma 33-16 last week in Clarksdale.
The Bobcats only led 12-10 at halftime before pulling away in the second half vs. the Tigers last week. Jones outgained Coahoma 265-138 in total offense in the second half.
Buckley said Coahoma deserves credit for its performance last week.
"A lot of our sluggishness had to do with Coahoma," he said. "Coahoma is a very much improved team. I think Coach (Steven) Miller and his staff have done a tremendous job there and they are going to win a lot of games.
"Offensively, a lot of things that caused us problems were self-inflicted with just a lack of execution. Defensively, I thought we played very hard all night. I thought we had some issues with alignment when we gave up some plays in the running and passing game, but they are easily correctable."
Quarterback Detric Hawthorn (Collins) rushed 11 times for 97 yards and a touchdown, running back Scott Phillips (South Jones) had 24 carries for 84 yards and a score and running back DeShawn Smith (Brooksville, Florida) had an 11-yard scoring run.
On defense, linebacker Brad Zaffram (Buffalo, New York) had 9 tackles, linebacker Derric Hawthorn (Collins) had 3 tackles, 3 tackles for loss and a fumble recovery and linebacker Jordyn Bowlin (Starkville) had a fumble recovery in the end zone for a touchdown. Linebacker Rayshon Marcel (Moss Point) had 4 tackles, while tackle Jordan Beaton (Harrison Central) and end Semaj Thomas (Fort Worth, Texas) each had a sack.
"Scheme-wise, it is set up for our linebackers to make plays if the defensive line does its job," he said. "Brad is doing a great job of lining everybody up and making plays. I thought he and 'Twin' (Derric Hawthorn) both played excellent at the linebacker position.
"Jordan is continuing to get better up front each week. Jordan has to be a dominant force inside for us. We don't have the length inside that we had last year, but 6-foot guys can play football at a high level. Jordan is a 6-footer, but he's got so much explosive strength."
Even though the Bobcats were credited with only two sacks, the defense continually pressured Coahoma quarterback Trey Mitchell, knocked him to the turf several times and forced him into a 7-for-27 night for only 58 yards.
"That's what we do," Buckley said. "We try to get to the quarterback and get pressure on him the whole night and make him uncomfortable. I think our kids understand that and accept that."
Buckley was very pleased with JCJC's special teams play.
Punter Taylor Wallace (Jackson Prep) averaged 40.0 yards per punt on five kicks, had four fair catches and two punts inside Coahoma's 20-yard line. Placekicker Mike Kroeze (Madison Central) had two field goals. Fred Peters (Columbia) averaged 27.5 yards on two kickoff returns and Smith had a 16-yard punt return.
"I thought we dominated the kicking game, which was huge for us," Buckley said. "That was the plan going in. I thought DeShawn and Jonnas Spivey (Bay Springs) did a great job fielding punts, except for one time. They have a weird punt formation that can cause you problems and we practiced for that all week.
"Kickoff returns were really good and kickoff coverage was excellent. Everybody is kicking it away from DeShawn and Fred is showing he can run the ball, too."
Overall, Buckley was pleased with the victory.
"The bottom line is that we went on the road and beat a good, sound football team," he said. "They've got 55 scholarships, too. They've done a great of recruiting up there. Like I said, it was not so much us, you have to give credit to Coahoma. But when you go on the road and get a win, you'll take it every time."
But now the Bobcats have to turn their attention to one of the division's most talented teams. Buckley said the Bobcats must do the basics in order to be successful against Co-Lin.
"It goes back to a philosophy I've always had," he said. "Take care of the ball on offense, swarm around and don't miss tackles on defense and don't mess up in the kicking game. If you build your team personnel-wise good enough to be consistent and you don't do the crazy things I just mentioned, you should come out on top. Turnovers, missed tackles and crazy things in the kicking game usually cost you ballgames."
JCJC goes back on the road next week with a 7 p.m. game on Sept. 28 at Southwest.
Co-Lin travels to East Central next week.