By Shawn Wansley, JCJC Sports Information Director
ELLISVILLE – Playoffs? Playoffs?
Don’t mention ‘playoffs’ to Jones County Junior College head coach Steve Buckley.
“We talked to the kids yesterday about it and it’s out of our system,” he said Tuesday morning. “I’m not worried about the playoffs and I’m not worried about the first round. We are focused on Gulf Coast.”
The Bobcats face Mississippi Gulf Coast at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at A.L. May Stadium in Perkinston. The game will air on www.jcjc.tv and on the official JCJC Facebook page on Facebook Live with Mark Easley and Ed Smith on the call.
The 8th-ranked Bobcats clinched the top seed in the MACJC South Division with a 41-36 victory over No. 7 Hinds last week. It is JCJC’s first time to be the top seed from the South Division since 2013.
JCJC enters the game at 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the South Division. The Bobcats are riding a seven-game winning streak – its longest winning streak since the 2007 team won its first seven games.
MGCCC is 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the division. Last week, Pearl River beat MGCCC 31-27, which eliminated the Bulldogs from playoff contention.
Buckley expects a battle on Saturday.
“Gulf Coast has a good football team,” he said. “They are kind of where we were last year as far as looking in from the outside. I’ve known (MGCCC head coach) Chad Huff a long time and I know the kind of caliber of coaches and players they have. They will get their team ready to play and we’ve got to end this thing on the positive side and be ready to play Saturday.”
On offense, MGCCC is led by running back Deandre Torrey (5-10, 190), a freshman from Gautier. He has rushed for 1,131 yards, which ranks second in the state and in the NJCAA.
Larry Sisson (6-0, 205), a sophomore from Pascagoula, is the quarterback. The Bulldogs’ leading receiver is Tyquan Ulmer (6-1, 180), a freshman from Laurel.
On defense, back R’Tarriun Johnson (6-0, 190), a freshman from Stone, and back Derrick Beckom (5-11, 190), a freshman from Columbus, are the top tacklers.
“Gulf Coast has been a dominant running team over the years and they play an aggressive style of defense,” Buckley said. “I’ve worked with (MGCCC defensive coordinator) Steve Davis and he’s been a heckuva defensive coach for a long time. We had better be ready to play.”
MGCCC owns wins over Itawamba (42-41), Copiah-Lincoln (21-14), East Central (48-25), Mississippi Delta (52-20) and Southwest (52-13). Besides PRCC, other losses have been to East Mississippi (49-10) and Hinds (28-21).
Last week, the Bobcats had to rally in the fourth quarter to beat the Eagles.
Buckley was pleased with the way JCJC played, especially during crunch time.
“I think it was a game that really challenged us,” he said. “It challenged us as coaches and challenged our players. You can say it now, but maybe not in the heat of the battle, but it was a good game for us to see if we could overcome some adversity.
“Give Hinds credit. They are a quality football team and have done a great job of recruiting and putting it together. We just made plays when we had to and that’s the secret to having success down the stretch. I could not be prouder of our guys for overcoming adversity.”
On offense, sophomore running back Scott Phillips (South Jones) rushed 27 times for 219 yards and had touchdown runs of 70 and 4 yards and sophomore running back DeShawn Smith (Brooksville, Florida) had 17 carries for 88 yards, including the go-ahead, 7-yard touchdown run with 3:57 left.
JCJC ended the game with 397 yards on the ground.
“That was our mindset going in,” Buckley said. “We had to dominate on both sides of the ball and we challenged our O-line to run the ball. But not just our O-line, we challenged our receivers, too. They blocked their tails off. It was fun watching our receivers get active and getting defensive backs on the ground.
“I thought Scottie had a big game, DeShawn ran well and our quarterbacks (Chris Weaver and Detric Hawthorn) played well, except for two interceptions and a fumble. Usually, when you turn it over the most, you lose that game and we overcame those three turnovers.”
On defense, back Fred Peters (Columbia) had a season-high 15 tackles (one tackle for loss) and linebacker Derric Hawthorn (Collins) had 13 stops and an interception. End Semaj Thomas (Fort Worth, Texas) had two sacks and one tackle for loss and end Brandon Young (West Jones) had one sack and one tackle for loss. Tackle Jordan Beaton (Harrison Central) had two tackles for loss, while linebackers Brad Zaffram (Buffalo, New York) and Jordyn Bowlin (Starkville) and end Lamarcus Keyes (West Jones) each had one tackle for loss.
“We were solid on defense,” Buckley said. “We gave up some runs, but we protected the pass.”
But one of the biggest plays in the game came via special teams.”
Trailing 36-34 with less than five minutes to play and facing a fourth and 6 at the Hinds’ 39, punter Taylor Wallace (Jackson Prep) calmly tossed a 19-yard strike to long snapper Reilly Reardon (Seminary) for a first down. Phillips took it 23 yards on the next play and Smith scored on the play after that.
In addition, placekicker Mike Kroeze was 5-of-5 on extra points and 2-for-2 on field goals. Kroeze was named both the MACJC and NJCAA Special Teams Player of the Week. Hinds missed on two extra point attempts and two field goals.
“That’s something we’ve practiced since day one in camp,” Buckley said of the fake punt. “We’ve had it in our back pocket for some time now. We felt like it was the perfect time to call it and it worked for us. I thought the kicking game was solid again.”
Jones will host an MACJC first-round playoff game at 1 p.m. on Nov. 4 against the North No. 2 team.
If No. 3 Northwest beats Northeast on Thursday, then the Rangers will be the No. 1 team in the North and No. 5 East Mississippi will be No. 2. If Northeast upsets Northwest, then several tiebreaker scenarios will come into play.
