ELLISVILLE – It's Homecoming at Jones College and the Bobcats hope to give their fans a reason to celebrate this weekend.
 
The Bobcats host East Central Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will air on jcbobcats.com/watch with Mark Easley and Chuck Robertson on the call.

Tickets can be purchased in advance for $10 through jcbobcats.com/tickets. Price goes up to $15 at the gate, cash only.
 
Jones enters the game at 3-3 overall, 1-2 in the MACCC South Division. The Warriors are 4-2 overall and 2-1 in division play.
 
The Bobcats are coming off a heartbreaking, 17-16 defeat at Hinds. East Central shocked previously undefeated and No. 3 Mississippi Gulf Coast, 24-20, last week.
 
Jones head coach Steve Buckley said the Bobcats are still in playoff contention, despite last week's loss. 
 
"I thought we played well enough in two phases to win, but it's called a football team," he said. "The offense, defense and kicking game have to be clicking and must complement each other. Right now, we are not complementing each other like we need to. It's frustrating, it's part of coaching and we understand where we are. 
 
"But the crazy thing about it is we are still in it. We need a little bit of help, but we've got to dig out of this and go out and play a game where we execute in all three phases."
 
MGCCC and Copiah-Lincoln are tied for the division lead at 3-1 and play each other Thursday in Wesson. ECCC is third at 2-1, Pearl River is 2-2, Jones and Hinds are 1-2 and Southwest is 0-3. The Bobcats end the season hosting East Central and Southwest and traveling to Pearl River. 
 
In last week's loss at Raymond, the Bobcats moved the ball well at times and had chances to get into position to kick a game-winning field goal in the fourth quarter. But Jones turned the ball over three times on fourth down on the Hinds' side of the field during the final 15 minutes.
 
"The kids played hard, but the bottom line is - and it's no secret - we are not executing well enough offensively to do what we need to do," Buckley said. "I thought we had two really good weeks of practice with the open date and last week. We had good physical practices, but we are turning people loose at times and we are just not executing and that's on me.
 
"We've got to clean up the offense and we've got to establish some things consistently. We are just hit or miss right now. We have to create more explosive plays down the field. That's what we have not done this year."
 
East Central fell behind 7-0 to Gulf Coast in the first quarter before coming from behind to get the upset. Quarterback Chris Tucker tossed two touchdown passes and Cade Mangum had three field goals to spark the Warriors. 
 
Jonathan Webster is in his second year as head coach at ECCC and Buckley said he has done an excellent job.
 
"They are very efficient on offense. They do a lot of things and are very multiple on offense and defense," he said. "You go back and look at what they did in their first year and what they are doing this year, they have upped their roster and they have continued to build on their schemes. 
 
"They do a lot of things with formations offensively which can cause you problems if you are not ready to adjust quickly. It's the same thing on defense. They line up in three-down and four-down and can blitz you from the weak side or the field side. You must have a very sound gameplan and you have to get a hat on a hat."
 
East Central's other wins have come vs. Northeast (23-14), No. 14 Itawamba (20-9) and Hinds (42-13). They have losses vs. No. 8 Northwest (22-17) and Pearl River (23-20).
 
This is the only Saturday game this season for the Bobcats. Buckley said the routine is different, but that's the nature of the sport these days.
 
"We are embracing this whole week from a mental and physical standpoint," he said. "We were very physical for our two weeks prior to Hinds. This week, we had a major film study yesterday (Monday), will walk-through today (Tuesday), get after it the next two days and have a walk-through on Friday. It is hard to change your routine even though the day of the week is different. 
 
"It's that way in college football whether you are in Division I or junior college because you are playing on different nights. That's something you have to adjust to more mentally than physically."
 
The Bobcats will play their final home game next week when they host Southwest for a 7 p.m. kickoff on Oct. 24. East Central hosts Co-Lin on that same evening.