DECATUR — Lightning can strike twice.

After tying the score on the last play before halftime Saturday, East Central Community College’s big-play offense struck again on the final play in regulation to force overtime at Bailey Stadium, where the Warriors emerged with a 34-28 homecoming win against Northeast Mississippi. The Warriors improved to 2-4, while Northeast fell to 2-4.

“We knew they were susceptible to the big play,” East Central coach Brian Anderson said. “It’s amazing to me with all the adversity — the two 1-point losses that we’ve had — that we were able to battle back when it just seems that it’s over. But that is the great thing about football, it’s never over until that horn blows.”

With eight seconds remaining, Warrior quarterback Emmanuel Taylor took the snap from the Northeast 36 and scrambled away from the Tigers pressure to his right and uncorking a pass over the Northeast defensive back into the waiting arms of freshman wide receiver Ronnie McMillan. Chad Mangum then connected on the PAT to tie the game at 28.

“These kids had done that before,” Anderson said. “We did that last year two times to win ballgames.”

The long score concluded a nine-play, 82-yard drive that covered 1:06. Before finding McMillan for the touchdown, Taylor hit sophomore Tevin Houston for a 16-yard gain on a fourth-and-10 to keep the Warriors’ hopes alive.

Those hopes were on life support just moments earlier. Taking over at their own 47 with 4:34 remaining, the Tigers needed just two plays to take a two-touchdown lead as sophomore running back Jeremy Cannon, who carried 33 times for 221 yards, ripped off a 38-yard run before scoring from 15 yards out.

East Central, though, responded. After being shut out in the second half — helped by a pair of interceptions, one in the end zone — the Warriors’ offense started to roll. On a third-and-7, Taylor found McMillan for 14 yards to move into Northeast territory. Three plays later, the sophomore quarterback found Fabian Johnson all by himself on the left side for a 43-yard score with 1:29 remaining.

It was then the East Central’s defense that rose to the occasion. After Northeast recovered the onsides kick, the Warriors forced a three-and-out, getting the ball back with 1:06 left to set up the game-tying drive.

The Warriors defense continued its stand in overtime. After allowing Cannon, the third-leading rusher in the state, to pick up one first down, East Central stiffened and forced a 31-yard field goal attempt, which Tyler Turner missed wide right. On the ensuing play, Taylor hit Antonio Hughes in the left corner of the end zone.

“We had set that up,” Anderson said. “We had run it earlier in the game, and it was open.

“When you miss a field goal, people just expect you to grind it out and just kick a field goal. We wanted to go for the jugular. No guts, no glory.”

The first lightning strike came on the final play before intermission, Taylor, who would complete 20 of 38 passes for 354 yards, found running back Dontice Sanders streaking behind a pair of Tigers defenders for a 41-yard touchdown to force a 14-14 tie.

“It gave me a sense of relief more than anything,” Anderson said. “To know that we had blown that many scoring opportunities there in the first half, we felt like we kind of deserved it, that little break of luck.”

Taylor also added a team-best 122 yards rushing on 13 carries, in leading East Central back from a missed field goal, a turnover on downs and an interception in the end zone in the first half. The Warriors turned it over two more times in the second half, including another interception in the end zone.