Freshman defensive end Claude Davis has been credited with 29 total tackles on the year, including 6 tackles for loss and 3 ½ sacks, to help lead the 2-1 Lions to the MACJC’s No. 3 team defense against the pass through three games.

SCOOBA, Miss. – The Lions of East Mississippi Community College (2-1, 1-0) hit the road for the third straight week, as coach Buddy Stephens’ squad heads to Perkinston to take on the second-ranked and defending national co-champion Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Bulldogs (3-0, 1-0) Thursday evening on the MGCCC campus.  Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at A.L. May Memorial Stadium.

            Thursday’s EMCC-MGCCC football contest can be heard on WFCA-FM (107.9) – the Voice of French Camp Academy – with Noah Britt handling the play-by-play duties.  The radio broadcast of the game can also be accessed through EMCC’s athletics website – athletics.eastms.edu.

            Thursday’s inter-divisional matchup in Perkinston will feature two of the state’s top scoring teams.  Ranked second nationally behind Blinn College (Texas) in the current NJCAA/JCFootball.com Poll, the 3-0 MGCCC Bulldogs have knocked off their first three 2008 opponents by an average margin of 29 points per outing and are averaging 38.3 points on the year.  Most recently, Gulf Coast claimed a 40-14 home triumph over Southwest Mississippi last week.  Averaging 33 points per contest, the EMCC Lions are coming off a 52-14 road victory over Holmes Community College last Thursday in Goodman.  Upon ushering in the Buddy Stephens era with a 28-9 home win over Copiah-Lincoln on Aug. 28, East Mississippi’s lone setback on the campaign was a 23-19 road loss to now-No. 5 Jones County Junior College two weeks ago in Ellisville.

            Ignited by freshman quarterback Randall Mackey of Bastrop (La.) High School, EMCC is currently ranked fifth nationally in team total offense (390.7 yards/game) and sixth in team passing (231.7 yards/game).  MGCCC is rated eighth among the national team leaders in rushing (205.3 yards/game).  Defensively, the Lions and Bulldogs jointly top the MACJC team leaders with identical +5 turnover margins.  Gulf Coast leads the state in rushing defense, surrendering an average of only 44.7 yards on the ground.  Ranked tied for second in the MACJC with six interceptions on the year, East Mississippi stands third in the state in passing defense (116.7 yards/game).

            Individually, EMCC’s Mackey rates fourth nationally in total offense (261 yards/game) and sixth in passing yards per game (217/gm).  On the heels of a season-best, 150-yard rushing effort at Holmes, freshman running back Pat Shed of Starkville is the MACJC’s No. 5 rusher with an average of 90 yards per outing.  He also stands fourth among the league’s leading non-kicking scorers with four touchdowns in the first three games.  The Lions also feature three sophomores with double-figure receptions for the season, led by Starkville’s Mike Outlaw with 13 catches and followed by Meridian’s Montrez Mosley and Leon Berry of Griffin, Ga., with 11 and 10 receptions, respectively.  In the kicking game, Gulf Coast’s Sean Brauchle and East Mississippi’s Phillip Dimino of West Point rate as the league’s top two scoring kickers and stand among the top six nationally with 21 and 19 points, respectively.

            Though EMCC and MGCCC have not met on the gridiron since the 2003 campaign, East Mississippi has prevailed in each of the last nine head-to-head meetings between the two teams dating back to the 1987 season.  The two most recent encounters have been defensive battles, with the Lions coming out on top, 10-6, in Scooba during the 2003 season and also the year prior, 10-7, in Perkinston.   

Following their third consecutive road contest this week at Gulf Coast, the Lions return to Sullivan-Windham Field on the EMCC campus to play two straight home divisional contests.  EMCC plays host to Northwest Mississippi Community College at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 25, and will welcome Coahoma Community College during Homecoming festivities on Saturday, Oct. 4.  Kickoff for EMCC’s Homecoming football contest is set for 2 p.m.