SUMMIT – The top-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College amassed 786 yards of total offense Thursday night in cruising to a 59-6 MACJC non-division football victory over Southwest Mississippi Community College on Monroe McElveen Field at John I. Hurst Stadium.   

With 464 yards passing and 322 rushing yards on the evening, the EMCC Lions established a single-game school standard for most yards of total offense during the Buddy Stephens coaching era (2008 to present).  The previous mark stood at 714 yards compiled in the team’s 56-35 victory at Holmes during last year’s NJCAA national championship season.

En route to posting their 10^th outing with 50 or more points in a single game over the last four-plus seasons, the Lions scored on their first two possessions against Southwest.  EMCC’s lone touchdown on the ground opened the scoring, as sophomore running back Rodriguez Moore went in from two yards out with 12:29 left in the first quarter.  Less than three minutes later, it took the visitors just three plays to go on top 14-0 when freshman quarterback Quez Johnson hit receiver Martay Mattox with a 49-yard touchdown strike over the middle at the 9:36 mark.

East Mississippi came away with points during all four of its second-quarter possessions.  First, Johnson and Mattox paired up for the second of three scoring connections on the night when EMCC’s freshman signal-caller found the University of South Carolina transfer with a 29-yard scoring aerial with 12:24 remaining in the half.  The Lions then took advantage of a Southwest fumble on the next series with placekicker Morgan Rhodes booting a 22-yard field goal three minutes later to make the score 24-0.

The visitors tacked on two additional touchdowns over the final four minutes of the opening half to move ahead 38-0 by the intermission.  The Johnson-to-Mattox connection struck for a third time as the tandem hooked up on a 42-yard quick scoring hit down the right hash mark with 3:23 left.  Following a three-and-out possession by the home-standing Bears, Johnson eyed sophomore transfer receiver Corey Smith, who took the lofted pass down the left sideline, broke a tackle and made his way into the end zone from 61 yards out to cap the first-half scoring with only 23.8 seconds remaining on the game clock.

The Lions’ offense continued to click following the break by hitting pay dirt on their first three drives of the second half.  Capping a penalty-riddled opening drive of the half, Johnson found Smith on a 5-yard slant pass at the 8:13 mark for their second scoring connection of the game and fourth of the season.  As Southwest was subsequently mounting a drive and approaching the red zone, freshman Byerson Cockrell’s team-leading second interception of the year set up EMCC’s next score later in the quarter.  With freshman quarterback Dontreal Pruitt at the controls in relief of Johnson, the former Laurel High School standout hit Tray Tarleton with a 9-yard scoring toss to make it 52-0 with 3:12 left in the third quarter.

The two teams traded scores in the final period.  EMCC freshman running back Lakenderic Thomas, of West Point, stretched the Lions’ string of unanswered points to 59 by taking an aerial from Pruitt and plowing into the end zone for an 11-yard score at the 13:46 mark.  Rhodes, from Northwest Rankin High School, proved true on his eighth consecutive point-after-touchdown attempt to go along with his earlier field goal on the night.  

For the second straight week, EMCC’s dominant defensive squad just missed out on recording a well-deserved shutout victory during the game’s final quarter.  Southwest running back Laderick Turner grabbed a short pass from quarterback Turner Easterbrook and darted 37 yards breaking tackles and dragging an EMCC defender into the end zone for the home team’s lone score with 7:57 remaining in the contest.  Kicker Paul Johnson’s PAT attempt was blocked to account for the 59-6 final, as the Lions ran out the remaining game clock by staying with their running game.

Through the season’s first three contests, East Mississippi’s standout stopper unit has allowed just 28 total points on the year, including a total of eight shutout quarters.

The Lions’ potent offensive attack was again triggered by Johnson, who threw for 403 yards and five touchdowns on 20-of-27 passing while playing the first half and only the initial series of the second half.  Pruitt picked up where the Starkville product left off by going 6-of-7 through the air for 61 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

Once again, EMCC’s quick-strike game plan utilized multiple pass-catchers with 10 different players on the receiving end of Lion aerials.  Smith, a transfer from Grand Rapids (Mich.) Community College by way of Akron, Ohio, led the way with seven receptions for 158 yards and two scores.  Fellow transfer Mattox, of Athens, Ga., followed with six grabs for 154 yards and three touchdowns.

On the ground for the Lions, Moore, of Bastrop, La., notched his eighth collegiate 100-yard rushing effort by collecting 101 yards on a dozen attempts, including his fourth rushing touchdown of the campaign.

Having extended their overall winning streak to 15 consecutive games dating back to last year’s national championship (12-0) season, the 3-0 EMCC Lions now turn their collective attention to the MACJC North Division part of their 2012 slate.  A composite 39-8 overall record and 22-2 mark in division play dating back to 2008 under Stephens’ guidance, East Mississippi returns home to welcome the Trojans of Mississippi Delta Community College on Thursday, Sept. 20.  Kickoff for EMCC’s division lid-lifter is set for 7 p.m. at Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus.

DECATUR – For the second straight game to open the 2012 campaign, standout defensive play keyed top-ranked East Mississippi Community College in a non-division football victory.  The visiting Lions forced four first-half turnovers while scoring 38 unanswered points on the way to claiming a convincing 51-7 road triumph over East Central Community College Thursday night at Bailey Stadium.

In the first gridiron meeting between the two long-standing traditional rivals since 2007, it was EMCC’s defense that set up the first score of the contest.  On East Central’s third play from scrimmage, sophomore defensive end Za’Darius Smith sacked Warrior quarterback Colton Kane and the Lions recovered at the 21-yard line.  Four plays later, freshman quarterback Quez Johnson barreled in from two yards out at the 11:00 mark to put the visitors on top 7-0 after Morgan Rhodes’ successful PAT attempt.

The Lions went up 14-0 on their next possession.  Following a 43-yard connection from Johnson to Ole Miss transfer Nick Brassell down the right sideline, Johnson later hit sophomore wide receiver Corey Smith on the opposite side.  The former Grand Rapids (Mich.) Community College transfer hauled in the pass, gave a fake to the covering defender and then cut back inside for a stylish 24-yard score with 6:52 remaining in the opening quarter.

EMCC’s aggressive defensive play, which forced five Pearl River miscues in last Saturday’s 35-15 season-opening victory over the Wildcats, paved the way for two additional scores late in the first half against East Central.  Following a missed 26-yard field-goal attempt by EMCC’s Rhodes, Lion freshman linebacker Brandon Edwards stripped ECCC’s Jamere Knox of the football and the Lions took over just outside the red zone.  Sophomore running back Rodriguez Moore got the ball six straight plays and capped the short drive by scampering around the left edge from a yard out with 3:38 left for the Lions’ third score of the half.

Smith, EMCC’s highly touted pass rusher from Greenville, Ala., came up big moments later by tipping Kane’s pass attempt at the line of scrimmage and securing the interception deep in ECCC territory.  The visitors capitalized on the Warriors’ fourth turnover of the half with Rhodes knocking through a 35-yard field goal with just under a minute left to make the halftime score 24-0.

The reigning NJCAA national champions, who went undefeated in a dozen outings a year ago, tacked on two more touchdowns a little more than a minute apart against East Central to make it 38-0 midway through the third quarter.  First, an eight-play EMCC drive was capped by a 16-yard scoring strike over the middle from Johnson to fellow Starkville High School product Billy Shed.  Following a three-and-out possession by the Warriors, EMCC’s Moore took a hand-off from freshman signal-caller Dontreal Pruitt and scooted 41 yards up the middle virtually untouched into the end zone at the 5:45 mark of the third quarter.

East Mississippi’s shutout bid came to an end early in the fourth quarter.  After Pruitt’s pass attempt was picked off by Deante Lawrence and brought back to the 7-yard line on the final play of the third period, East Central’s Martin Johnson put the Warriors on the board at the 12:29 mark with a fourth-and-goal burst up the middle from a yard out.    

In securing their first football victory over East Central since 1998 after six straight setbacks to the Warriors, the Lions reached the 50-point mark for the ninth time during the Buddy Stephens era with a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter.  EMCC answered the home team’s lone score of the contest by mounting a 10-play, 79-yard drive on its next possession.  Pruitt, from Laurel High School, capped a 5-of-7 drive through the air by finding Columbus’ Deontae Jones on a 23-yard scoring toss at the 9:41 mark.  Staying on the ground to run out the clock, the Lions hit pay dirt one final time on Xavier Hogan’s 5-yard touchdown run with just 34 seconds remaining.

For the night, EMCC’s Johnson was 22-of-35 passing for 253 yards and two throwing touchdowns plus the rushing score.  In his collegiate quarterbacking debut, Pruitt completed 8-of-11 passes for 81 yards and a touchdown.  Each EMCC quarterback threw an interception on the evening.  Nine different players caught passes for the Lions, led by University of South Carolina transfer Martay Mattox, of Athens, Ga., with five receptions for 57 yards and a score.  Smith and Shed followed with four grabs apiece for 65 and 55 receiving yards, respectively.

On the ground, Moore, coming off a 112-yard rushing effort in the season opener, finished the evening with 64 rushing yards, including the 41-yard scoring burst, on 11 carries against East Central.   

Stretching their overall two-year winning streak to 14 consecutive games as well as notching a 14th straight victory in regular-season competition dating back to 2010, the 2-0 EMCC Lions travel to Summit to meet the Bears of Southwest Mississippi Community College next Thursday (Sept. 13).  The 7 p.m. contest will mark the first meeting between the two schools on the gridiron since the 2007 season.