SCOOBA – Set to make their MACJC North Division road debut this week, the seventh-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College will take on Northeast Mississippi Community College Thursday night in Booneville.  Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. at Tiger Stadium on the NEMCC campus.

    Maintaining their No. 7 national ranking in this week’s NJCAA Top 20 football poll, head coach Buddy Stephens’ EMCC Lions are 2-1 overall and 1-0 in division play heading into the middle portion of their nine-game, regular-season slate.  

    Most recently, the two-time reigning national champions bounced back from having their 25-game winning streak snapped the previous week at now-No. 1 Copiah-Lincoln (31-24 in OT on Sept. 3) with a 69-0 home shutout victory over Coahoma a week ago.  EMCC opened the current campaign last month with a 69-20 home triumph over Southwest Mississippi.

    East Mississippi ranks among the top five nationally in scoring offense (54.0 ppg), passing yards (358.3 yds/gm) and total offense (614.7 yds/gm).  

    Last week’s 69-0 win over Coahoma marked the eighth time EMCC’s offense has generated at least 69 points in a game during the Stephens era along with producing the Lions’ 11th shutout victory since 2013.

    Sophomore wide receiver Allenzae Staggers earned both NJCAA and MACJC Special Teams Player of the Week honors after amassing 267 all-purpose yards and scoring four touchdowns during last week’s division-opening victory over Coahoma.  The former Wilkinson County High School product leads all EMCC receivers with 12 catches for 155 yards and three touchdowns on the season.  Through the first three games, the Lions have 10 different players with at least five receptions for the year.

    Sophomore quarterback Wyatt Roberts, a former Louisville High School standout, currently ranks among the NJCAA’s top 10 statistical leaders with an average of 285.7 passing yards per game and nine total touchdowns thrown.  The Lions are also averaging 256.3 rushing yards per contest, as powered by the talented trio of DJ Law (98.0 yds/gm), Jacquez Horsley (78.3) and Isaiah Wright (33.0).

    On the other side of the ball, the Lions are coming off a dominating defensive effort against Coahoma in which they limited the Tigers to just 64 yards of total offense and registered EMCC’s 14th shutout win in the last 34 games dating back to the 2012 season.  This year, nine different EMCC defenders have combined for 12 quarterback sacks.

    Guided by first-year head coach Greg Davis, who served as the team’s offensive coordinator last season, the Tigers of Northeast Mississippi are winless in three attempts thus far this season after dropping a 40-23 home decision to Mississippi Gulf Coast to open the year and most recently falling on the road to Hinds (44-13) and Northwest Mississippi (51-14).  All three of Northeast’s setbacks have come to opponents currently ranked among the NJCAA’s top 13 teams nationally.

    In the recent series history between these two MACJC North Division foes, East Mississippi has prevailed in six of the seven gridiron meetings with Northeast spanning back to Stephens’ EMCC arrival in 2008.  Most recently, the Lions posted Scooba wins over NEMCC last season (65-7) and the previous year (59-0).  Prior to that, EMCC claimed road victories over the Tigers both in 2012 (49-0) and 2011 (63-35).

    Now 70-11 (.864) overall and 40-3 (.930) against MACJC North Division competition since 2008, Stephens’ EMCC clubs are 20-1 collectively in division road contests during that span.  With six division titles in the last seven seasons, including a current string of four consecutive division crowns, the Lions’ lone division road setback under Stephens’ guidance was a 24-23 loss at Itawamba during the 2012 regular-season finale.