Booneville, Miss.,--Northeast Mississippi Community College's football team fell short last night at Tiger Stadium against the number fourth ranked team in the nation but fought to the end.
Northeast (2-5, 1-3) gave up 21 points in the first quarter off three turnovers which gave the Lions (7-0, 4-0) enough momentum to take advantage of and EMCC capitalized by scoring 21 unanswered points in the first few minutes of the first quarter.
East Mississippi's first touchdown drive started at the Tigers' 20-yard line, after an interception by the Lions DB Justin Cox. Lions QB Quez Johnson then connected with WR Billy Shed for an eight yard TD strike and EMCC went up 7-0 after the successful point-after-attempt by PK Morgan Whodes.
Johnson capitalized on another Northeast turnover, thirty seconds later in the first frame -- this time off a fumble by the Tigers. Once again, Johnson took advantage of the short field position with another touchdown strike this time to wide-out Nick Brassell for 21-yard score to put EMCC up 14-0.
Approximately one minute later in the first quarter, the Lions DB Frank Richardson intercepted Tigers QB Matt Lipham's pass attempt to WR Jamarius Tallie – that was tipped – and raced 31-yards down the sideline for another Lions score to put East Mississippi up 21-0 at the 9:25 mark in the opening frame.
East Mississippi would add one more score in the first period with 3:25 left to play on a three yard quarterback draw run by Johnson to make it a 28-0 contest at the break.
East Mississippi added three more scores in the second half. The Lions added seven points in the third quarter off another Johnson quarterback draw for six points, and then added 14 more points in the final quarter. Back-up QB Dontreal Pruitt connected with Martay Mattox for a 14-yard touchdown pass with 13:09 left to play and RB Xavier Hogan scampered in from two-yards out at the four minute mak for the final score on the night, to give the Lions 49-0 victory.
Top performers for the Tigers included running back Jay Jones, who had 49 yards rushing on 13 attempts and 63 yards receiving of just two catches, along with tight end Logan Stokes, who had three catches for 33 yards. Defensively for Northeast, they were led by safety Brian Walker who had 10 tackles and one pass break-up along with J.R. White, who added five stops, one sack, and posted two tackles for a loss.
Northeast will look to rebound from the loss next week on Saturday, October 20 in Booneville for Homecoming 2012 when they face off against cross town rivals the Itawamba Community College Indians.
Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. on Saturday.
CUTLINE: Sophomore defensive back #4 Kareem Brown makes a play on the ball against the defending MACJC and NJCAA champs (#4 East Mississippi Community College) on Thursday, October 11, 2012 at Tiger Stadium.
Photo taken by Jucoweekly staff