Ken Karcher isn’t changing a thing.

After a shutout loss to then-No. 5 East Mississippi in Week 5, East Central scored a big win over formerly 15th-ranked Copiah-Lincoln last week in MACJC South action to earn its first national ranking of the season. 

The now 19th-ranked Warriors have since turned their attention to conference foe No. 1 Mississippi Gulf Coast — the newest top team in the county — which they will host Thursday night. Despite the magnitude of the Top 20 matchup, head coach Karcher said his squad will operate the same come kickoff.

“Good football teams don’t change,” Karcher said. “Gulf Coast isn’t going to come up here and all of a sudden do something different on offense or defense or in the kicking game, and we’re not going to line up on either side of the ball and do something different either. We’re just going to try and get better at what put us in this situation, and I’m sure they’re going to do the same thing.”

The Bulldogs come into Decatur with a perfect 6-0 record, having outscored opponents by an average of 26.5 points per game. They rank seventh in the country in yards per game, second in first downs and second in yards allowed per game. They’ve also earned wins over ranked teams like Copiah-Lincoln and Jones.

For East Central (4-2, 3-0), its run-first offense will rely heavily on freshman JD Martin and sophomore Marq Qualls. Both running backs get an average of around 13 handoffs per game, and Martin’s 97.5 yards per game is good for eighth in the country. 

Martin said every player has an individual job to do, and every player succeeding in that job will be crucial Thursday.

“It’s got to start off with all 11 men on the field,” Martin said. “It’s going to be loud; everybody’s got to be focused.” 

Mississippi Gulf Coast (6-0, 3-0) dropped 55 points on Southwest Mississippi last week and averages nearly 40 a game. East Central, on the other hand, has held opponents to less than 14 points per game and shut out Southwest Mississippi and Pearl River in back-to-back weeks Sep. 12 and 19. The 23-18 win over Copiah-Lincoln gave the Wolves their second fewest points of the season.  

Karcher said the Copiah-Lincoln game, the first win for him against the Wolves in seven seasons as head coach, was big for his team, but it’ll be a whole new story against the Bulldogs. 

“I hope the kids will take that and use it for confidence, but the Co-Lin game will have nothing to do with this week’s game against Gulf Coast,” he said. “Different week, different team, you have to do it again. That’s what good teams do week in and week out.”

Sophomore linebacker Elijah Keyes leads the Warriors with 6.5 tackles per game this season. He said the defense has been working this week on preventing rushing lanes for opposing running backs and the quarterback. Mississippi Gulf Coast runs for nearly 200 yards per game with the help of Deondre House, who averages more than 62 yards per game, and Austin Bolton, who averages more than 57. 

Quarterback Chance Lovertich has run the ball 20 times for minus 14 yards, but his 246.8 passing yards per game and 16 touchdowns through the air rank him among the top 10 in the nation. His near 70-percent completion rate puts him second in all of JuCo football.

“We’re depending on our D-line to come in there and do like they always do, just dominate the front line in the trenches,” Keyes said. “They’re a great team, we’re a great team; they’ve got great coaches, we’ve got great coaches; they’ve got great players, we’ve got great players, so every man is just going to have to come ready to play and just take it on.”

In the passing game for East Central, Holman Edwards has thrown for less than 107 yards per game with seven touchdowns and eight interceptions. Many of his completions are off screen plays and short passes, though he will switch it up in favor of sending receivers out on longer routes. Karcher said his opponent, which has allowed only two passing touchdowns all year, knows how his offense is run. 

“Gulf Coast knows what we’re going to do,” he said. “We’re going to always run the football, we’ll run play action and we’ll take some shots deep. That’s who we are. It doesn’t change, we’ve just got to execute.”

The Warriors’ last win against the Bulldogs came in 2016, and they lost by only three in their matchup last year. To come out on top Thursday, Karcher said, East Central has to take every advantage when they arrive.

“We have to make some of the big plays that are out on the football field,” he said. “We’ve had some opportunities that we’ve left out there, whether it be an execution situation or maybe just a misread of something, but when you get those opportunities against good football teams, you’ve got to hit them. You can’t miss them.”

Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. from Warrior Field.