EMCC Lions to close out home slate and honor 2024 Sports Hall of Fame class by hosting Mississippi Delta
Looking to keep their MACCC playoff hopes alive, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College will close out their regular-season home football slate by playing host to the Mississippi Delta Trojans during Thursday’s MACCC North Division action. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus.
SCOOBA – Looking to keep their MACCC playoff hopes alive, the Lions of East Mississippi Community College will close out their regular-season home football slate by playing host to the Mississippi Delta Trojans during Thursday's MACCC North Division action. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus.
Thursday's EMCC-Delta division matchup will also feature a halftime recognition of the five newest members of EMCC's Sports Hall of Fame, which consists of retired education administrator/basketball coach Dr. Ed Davis, former football offensive lineman Thurman M. (Buddy) Lowe Jr., former women's basketball player Deborah Stancil, standout rodeo cowboy Marcus Theriot, and former baseball outfielder Kent Williams.
Sitting at 3-4 overall and 2-2 in MACCC North Division play, the EMCC Lions most recently had their two-game win streak (62-14 Homecoming victory over Coahoma & 49-21 win at Northeast Mississippi) snapped with last Thursday's 32-28 non-division road setback against Pearl River. This season, the reigning two-time MACCC champions have also beaten Hinds (43-3) while having dropped decisions to Mississippi Gulf Coast (34-28), Northwest Mississippi (33-14) and Itawamba (36-34). EMCC will conclude the regular season next Thursday (Oct. 31) by traveling to Goodman for a 3 p.m. homecoming gridiron battle against the nationally sixth-ranked and unbeaten Holmes Bulldogs at Ras Branch Stadium.
Guided by third-year head football coach Tavares Johnson, Mississippi Delta is currently 1-6 overall on the year and 0-4 against MACCC North Division foes. The Trojans' lone victory to date this season has been a 23-7 homecoming win over Hinds during Week 3 in Moorhead. With non-division setbacks to Jones (41-9) and Mississippi Gulf Coast (43-7) to open the season, Delta has since fallen in division play to Itawamba (35-17), Northeast (20-14), Holmes (52-21) and Northwest (31-3). The Trojans will wrap up their 2024 football campaign next Thursday (Oct. 31) by playing host to Coahoma.
With career coaching marks of 146-28 overall (.839) and 84-10 (.894) in MACCC North Division contests during his 17 seasons as head football coach of the EMCC Lions, Buddy Stephens owns an unblemished 15-0 career record (8-0 in Moorhead & 7-0 in Scooba) against Mississippi Delta through the years. He also owns unbeaten career marks versus MACCC foes Coahoma (16-0), East Central (5-0) and Southwest Mississippi (5-0). A season ago (Nov. 2, 2023) in Scooba following three straight previous series meetings in Moorhead, the Lions captured their 11th MACCC North Division football title of the Stephens era by closing out the 2023 regular season with a commanding 52-6 home victory over the Trojans. Last year's dominant 46-point triumph over Delta also completed EMCC's 10th unbeaten division slate under Stephens' guidance dating back to the 2008 season.
Thursday's EMCC-MDCC contest will be broadcast live by WFCA-FM (107.9), out of French Camp, with Jason Crowder and Glen Beard slated to provide the play-by-play and color commentary, respectively. Jay Perry is set to handle sideline reporting duties. The game's live-streamed audio will also be carried by EMCC's campus radio station, WGTC-FM (92.7), originating from the Golden Triangle campus in Mayhew. Along with EMCC's weekly live video-streamed football broadcasts being available in HD at emcclive.com, alternate audio streams of the Lions' radio broadcasts throughout the football season will also be accessible via wfca.fm.
