ELLISVILLE – Fourth-ranked Jones College will have a difficult assignment this week.
The Bobcats (1-0) travel to Scooba to meet No. 13 East Mississippi (0-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Sullivan-Windham Field.
The Bobcats opened the season with a solid, 27-13 victory at Itawamba last week. Meanwhile, Copiah-Lincoln kicked a 29-yard field goal with two minutes remaining and defeated the Lions, 23-20.
It was only the fourth season opening loss in EMCC head coach Buddy Stephens' 16-year tenure and Bobcat head coach
Steve Buckley knows his team will get an inspired Lion effort this week.
"They are a very talented football team that is well-coached and they will play hard," he said. "They will play harder than ever against us. Buddy (Stephens) has been in this league a long time and he gets it. You got room for one error, but you don't have room for two errors. I'm sure they will come out juiced up, I'm sure they are going to have a good week of practice and they are going to be ready to play."
EMCC led 20-13 early in the fourth quarter before the Wolves rallied for the win. Buckley said the Lions missed two field goals and an extra point.
"They missed two short field goals and lost by three, but Co-Lin is a good football team, too," Buckley said. "We've got our work cut out for us getting ready to go on the road again and play a really good football team."
Jones jumped out to a 13-0 halftime lead last week. After the Indians cut the lead to 13-7 going into the fourth quarter, the Bobcats went up 27-7 before clinching the victory.
"I was very pleased with the effort," Buckley said. "Obviously, with the first game there is a lot to clean up. I think we have got to calm some guys down on offense and just let the system come to them and not try to make too many things happen.
"To go on the road in the first game and get a win against a good Itawamba football team was big. We go into an environment with a new staff with new blood and new juice and a big crowd and won the game. One of the things that did not really show up was that it rained like crazy the night before up there and the field was really muddy, but both of us had to play on the same field."
Quarterback
DJ Smith (Greenville Christian) was 14-of-22 for 193 yards, but had three interceptions. He rushed 14 times for 77 yards and had two touchdowns.
Trent Davis (Attalla, Alabama) had a 9-yard touchdown run.
"We had three picks and two of them were tipped balls," Buckley said. "One of them shouldn't have been thrown, but we tried to force it in on the corner route. But give Itawamba credit. The kid made a good play and they picked it. The other two were just flukes. But we have got to take care of the ball and we've got to slow everything down a little bit mentally and let it all come to us."
Freshman placekicker
Bart Edmiston Jr. (Ocean Springs) had field goals of 31 and 26 yards, was 3-for-3 on extra points and averaged 45.5 yards on four punts.
"That's why we recruited him hard," Buckley said. "He's been dealing with a little groin injury and I didn't think he kicked off as well as he needs to, but he did a great job punting and the punt team did a great job covering. (Long snapper) Charlie (Cox) did a great job snapping all night."
There were several standouts for the Bobcat defense.
Raymond Collins (Harrison Central),
Zechariah Parodi (Scott Central),
Daishun Scott (Greenville Christian),
JD Stewart (Greenville Christian) and
Quintin Sterling (Oak Grove) were each credited with four tackles. Collins had three tackles for loss and Stewart had two. Stewart had two sacks and Collins had one. Sterling had a 52-yard interception return and
Cedrick Beavers (Taylorsville) also had an interception.
"We play defense here and it's very important," Buckley said. "Our kids acknowledge that and take pride in it. The defensive staff and defensive players did a good job.
"But, I was really pleased with all three phases. The defense played exceptional all night, the kicking game was very solid and offensively, we moved the ball effectively, but we've got to score in the red zone."
Next week, the Bobcats will open MACCC South Division play with their first home game of the season on Sept. 21 vs. Co-Lin at Bobcat Stadium/Sim Cooley Field. The contest will air on JCJC.TV and WLAU-FM, 99.3, SuperTalk Laurel with Mark Easley and Luke Johnson on the call.
It will be Hall of Fame night as six people will be inducted into the Jones College Sports Hall of Fame. The inductees are Ronnie Adams (football, track), Trent Giambrone (baseball), Josh Heird (soccer, track), Cecilia Lawn (softball), Tatyana Lofton (basketball) and Joby Moss (cheerleading).
East Mississippi hosts Holmes on Sept. 21.
