ELLISVILLE – The top-ranked and undefeated Jones College Bobcats have a chance to clinch the top spot in the MACCC South Division.
The Bobcats, 7-0 overall and 4-0 in division play, host No. 13 Mississippi Gulf Coast at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bobcat Stadium/Sim Cooley Field. The Bulldogs, the defending division champions, are 5-2 overall and 3-1 in division play. The game will air on JCJC.TV, WLAU-FM, 99.3, and SuperTalkLaurel.com with Mark Easley and Luke Johnson on the call.
Jones head coach
Steve Buckley expects a heavyweight matchup with Gulf Coast.
"I tell the team every week when you win one game the next one gets bigger," he said. "We are excited about playing Gulf Coast this week. They are a good football team and that's very obvious for a lot of reasons. They are well coached and play hard. It should be an outstanding football game.
"They have a very talented football team at every position, they play hard and they are well coached. You have a recipe for a good football team when you have those three things."
On the season, Gulf Coast has beaten Holmes, 56-14; Northeast Mississippi, 18-16; Pearl River, 33-10; Copiah-Lincoln, 14-13; and East Central, 31-13. They lost 42-37 to Hinds, after leading 31-3, and last week, they fell to No. 9 Northwest Mississippi, 38-14.
The Bobcats are coming off their closest game of the season, a 28-22 win at Pearl River.
Buckley said Jones turned the ball over too much, but did plenty of good things to defeat the Wildcats.
"There are three things I told the team that we take from that game," he said. "Number one, we went on the road and won. Number two, we went on the road and beat a South Division rival opponent. And number three, we are 7-0 at the end of the game and that's what matters.
"Was it a clean game from us? No, but give Pearl River credit because they had something to do with that. I thought after we looked at it and dissected it, we made the least number of mistakes in that football game than we have made in a game this year. What we did was that we made crucial mistakes and had four turnovers. That was the difference in our production during the course of that game."
The Bobcats took a 28-10 lead on the first play from scrimmage in the second half when quarterback
Quaterius Hawkins (Bastrop, Louisiana) ran 79 yards for a touchdown.
But Jones fumbled on its next two plays from scrimmage and the Wildcats turned both of those mistakes into touchdowns.
It was not until
Hershey McLaurin (Collins) intercepted a Wildcat pass at the Bobcat 23-yard line with 2:12 left in the game that the Bobcats could clinch the win.
"We turned it over on back-to-back plays in their red zone and they got a short field and took advantage of it," Buckley said. "That was crucial. We had four turnovers and if you take those four plays out of the ballgame, could it be different? I don't know, but I'm excited about that ballgame and what we did.
"We limited our mistakes way lower than we have been doing, but we made crucial mistakes in the (Pearl River) red zone and turned the ball over."
The Bobcats got another solid effort from sophomore running back
La'Damian Webb (Opelika, Alabama). Webb picked up 170 yards on 24 carries and scored two touchdowns. It was his seventh, 100-yard game of the season, giving him 1,058 yards, which leads the NJCAA. His 13 rushing touchdowns also leads the nation.
Defensively,
Hershey McLaurin and
Drew Horton (Madison-Ridgeland Academy) had nine stops each and
Zach Causey (Madison Central) had eight tackles.
Hershey McLaurin,
Markel McLaurin (Collins) and
Mike Cockream (Ray Brooks) each had a pass interception. The Bobcats have 17 interceptions on the season, which leads the NJCAA. Defensive back
Ty Rawls (Wetumpka, Alabama) had a fumble recovery.
With only two games remaining in regular season play, Buckley said the Bobcats are in relatively good shape physically.
"We are pretty healthy at this point," he said. "We've got a lot of bumps and bruises, but after seven games you should have a bunch of bumps and bruises. We will know more this week on a couple of key players."
The Bobcats end regular season play with a 6:30 p.m. kickoff on Oct. 28 at Co-Lin. Gulf Coast hosts Southwest on Oct. 30 in its regular season finale.
MACCC Standings
SOUTH DIVISION
Division Overall
W L W L
Jones College 4 0 7 0
Hinds 3 1 5 2
Gulf Coast 3 1 5 2
Copiah-Lincoln 3 2 3 4
East Central 2 3 2 5
Pearl River 0 4 2 5
Southwest 0 4 2 5
NORTH DIVISION
Division Overall
W L W L
East Mississippi 5 0 7 0
Northwest 3 1 5 2
Coahoma 3 2 4 3
Itawamba 2 2 3 4
Mississippi Delta 1 3 3 4
Northeast 1 3 1 6
Holmes 0 4 0 7
October 21 games
Mississippi Gulf Coast at Jones, 7 p.m.
East Central at Hinds, 7 p.m.
Mississippi Delta at Holmes, 3 p.m.
East Mississippi at Copiah-Lincoln, 6:30 p.m.
Northeast at Coahoma, 6:30 p.m.
Itawamba at Northwest, 7 p.m.
October 23 game
Pearl River at Southwest, 5 p.m.
October 28 games
Jones at Copiah-Lincoln, 6:30 p.m.
Hinds at Pearl River, 7 p.m.
Coahoma at East Central, 6:30 p.m.
East Mississippi at Itawamba, 6:30 p.m.
Holmes at Northeast, 6:30 p.m.
Northwest at Mississippi Delta, 7 p.m.
October 30 game
Southwest at Mississippi Gulf Coast, 3:30 p.m.
End regular season
