ELLISVILLE – Jones College head coach Steve Buckley has been keeping tabs on the MACCC results this fall.
 
And he's noticed a statistic that has his team's attention heading into this week's game at East Central.
 
"So far, there have been 21 conference games and 16 of the 21 home teams have won," he said Tuesday morning. "We are going on the road to play a team with a new coaching staff that will play extremely hard. They have brought in a lot of new talent and they played Hinds down to the wire last week."
 
The No. 11 Bobcats (2-1, 1-0) travel to Decatur to meet the Warriors at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The game will air on JCJC.TV and WLAU-FM, 99.3, SuperTalk Laurel with Mark Easley and Luke Johnson on the call.
 
The Bobcats are coming off a solid, 42-32 victory over previously 10th-rated Copiah-Lincoln.
 
Jones jumped out to a 28-3 lead in the second quarter, led 35-17 at halftime and held on for the victory.
 
Buckley said his team played better than it did the previous week when Jones lost 47-23 at No. 5 East Mississippi.
 
"First of all, Co-Lin has a good football team and played us hard," he said. "We knew they were. In the game I thought there were times where we needed to be more consistent.
 
"But I thought a big key was that we went from 13 negative plays the week before to only five negative plays with three of those being the exchange from the center to the quarterback. I don't know what's going on with that, but it's easy to clean up. I thought we made a lot of progress from the week before."
 
Jones amassed 23 first downs, 248 rushing yards and 454 yards of total offense. Running back Trent Howell (George County) carried 17 times for 126 yards and a touchdown as the Bobcats had their best rushing output of the young season.
 
"We established the run and we began to execute up front," Buckley said. "We did not call any different plays, we just executed better. We've got three good running backs and it was good to see us do well."
 
Quarterback DJ Smith (Greenville Christian) had an efficient game, completing 10-of-14 passes for 194 yards and two touchdowns. He added 34 yards on the ground. Wide receiver Justin Campbell (Johns Creek, Georgia) had a 55-yard touchdown catch and wideout Jerry Johnson Jr. (Pearl) caught a 41-yard touchdown pass.
 
Defensively, back Tyreke Snow (Newton) had eight tackles, linebacker Daishun Scott (Greenville Christian) had seven tackles, 1.5 TFLs and 1.5 sacks and defensive lineman Zechariah Parodi (Scott Central) had five tackles and two TFLs. Parodi, a 5-foot-11, 275-pound freshman, also lined up in the backfield in short yardage situations and carried three times for nine yards and a touchdown.
 
Punter Bart Edmiston Jr. (Ocean Springs) averaged 48.3 yards on four punts and leads the NJCAA with a 48.2 yards per kick average.
 
Buckley was pleased with the way his team bounced back after the EMCC loss. He said the Bobcats spent the week concentrating on themselves more than Co-Lin.
 
"The week before we lost a ball game and the sun came up the next day," he said. "Each week, 50 percent of the teams will lose. You never want to lose and you want to win every time you go out on the field. 
 
"We spent the week focusing more on us than Co-Lin. We've got to be smart on how we handle it and we are not going to have a knee-jerk reaction after a loss. I trust my coaches and we evaluate every aspect of our program after every game whether we win or lose. The goal is to win every game, but you are not going to win every game you play."
 
East Central is in its first season under head coach Jonathan Webster. Webster served as defensive coordinator at Northeast prior to coming to ECCC. He also coached at his alma mater, Northwest, before going to Northeast.
 
The Warriors opened the season with a 62-7 win over Coahoma before falling to Holmes, 24-7, and Hinds, 17-13.
 
Buckley said his team respects the Warriors.
 
"On defense, they blitz 65 percent of the time and on offense they hit some big plays," he said. "But the focus will continue to be on us. There is a lot of parity in the league and there are a lot of good coaches. It's a challenge each week."
 
Buckley said the plan is simple heading into this week's contest.
 
"Offensively, we have got to cut back on turnovers," he said. "We are minus-four in turnovers and some of them have been freakish. We have just got to take care of the football. Defensively, we have to create more turnovers."
 
The Bobcats return home to Bobcat Stadium/Sim Cooley Field next week when they host Hinds in a 7 p.m. matchup on Oct. 5.
 
East Central travels to Southwest on Oct. 5.