SCOOBA — The East Mississippi Community College football team had eight players earn second-team honors on the 2015 MACJC All-State Football Team, as officially released Monday by the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges office headquartered in Jackson.

As voted on by the head coaches of the MACJC’s 14 member schools that participate in football, the 2015 NJCAA All-Region 23 Football Team was also released Monday.

EMCC’s second-team representation on the 2015 MACJC All-State Football Team includes three players on offense, four on defense and one on special teams. Offensively, the Lions have sophomore running back DJ Law (Haines City, Fla.), sophomore offensive lineman James Davis (Murrah HS) and freshman running back/wide receiver Isaiah Wright (Florence). On defense, EMCC is represented by sophomore defensive linemen Ronald Ollie (Wayne County HS) and Aikeem Coleman (Hattiesburg), along with freshman linebacker De’Arius Christmas (Warren Central HS) and sophomore transfer defensive back C.J. Reavis (Chester, Va). Freshman kicker/punter Grayson Pontius (Biloxi) also earned second-team All-State honors for the 8-1 and five-time reigning MACJC North Division Champion EMCC Lions.     

Ranked fourth statistically as a team among the NJCAA’s leading scoring offenses and rated third defensively this season, EMCC’s lack of representation on either the 2015 MACJC All-North Division First Team or NJCAA All-Region 23 Team marks the first time during the Buddy Stephens era (since 2008) that the Lions have not had any first-team all-division players nor any all-region selections. Prior to this season, the three-time NJCAA national champions had averaged 8.1 MACJC All-North Division First Team players (57 total), 4.9 NJCAA All-Region 23 selections (34 total) and 3.3 NJCAA All-Americans (23 total) per year during the previous seven seasons combined (2008-14) under Stephens’ guidance.

Law led EMCC’s balanced rushing attack with 597 rushing yards this past year despite missing two games due to an injury. With four 100-yard rushing efforts as a sophomore, the Florida native ranks second nationally by averaging 9.3 yards per rush attempt and stands 21st with an average of 85.3 yards on the ground per contest.

Wright ranked second on the team with 72 points scored on a dozen touchdowns, while rushing for 483 yards and seven touchdowns and catching 16 passes for 252 yards and four scores.

Also used on kick returns this season, Law and Wright ranked 1-2 on EMCC’s 2015 squad by respectively averaging 122.6 and 96.9 all-purpose yards an outing.

Davis, a transfer from Southern Mississippi, was a two-year starter on EMCC’s offensive line.

On the other side of the football, Christmas paced all EMCC defenders with 75 total tackles on the year, including five quarterback sacks for 26 yards.         

Coleman, a transfer from the University of Central Arkansas, ranks second in the MACJC and tied for 19th nationally with 16.5 tackles for loss for 91 total yards.

Another disruptive force on the MACJC’s top-ranked defense against the run in 2015, Ollie was credited with a pair of forced fumbles, three fumble recoveries and an interception to go along with his four tackles for loss.

In the Lions’ defensive secondary, Reavis, a Virginia Tech transfer, topped EMCC with two pass interceptions and eight pass break-ups this season along with ranking second on the team with 40 total tackles.

Handling EMCC’s placekicking and punting chores this season, Pontius ranks 10th among NJCAA kickers with 76 points on 58-of-62 extra-point attempts and 6-of-11 field goal tries.  The Biloxi High School product looked to have also ranked among the nation’s Top 10 punting leaders with his 39.0 yards-per-punt average had he met the NJCAA’s statistical requirement of 3.6 punt attempts per contest.

This season as a team, EMCC currently ranks among the NJCAA’s top six offensive teams in scoring offense (fourth with 50.7 points per game), total offense (second with 587.4 yards per game), passing yardage (fourth with 335.7 yards per game), rushing yardage (sixth with 251.8 yards per game) and first downs (first with 26.8 per game). Defensively as a unit, the Lions presently rate third nationally in scoring defense (14.8 points per game) while also standing second in the MACJC (21st in NJCAA) in total defense (295.6 yards per game) as well as leading the MACJC (23rd in the NJCAA) in defense against the run (118.3 yards per game).