East Mississippi sets football schedule for 2016 season
Published 4:00 am Friday, May 20, 2016
- East Mississippi Community College’s Mario Lanier works his way through Northwest Community College defenders. Northwest, the defending NJCAA national champions will be the homecoming guest on Oct. 15.
SCOOBA — Featuring four home contests and five road games, East Mississippi Community College’s nine-game, regular-season 2016 football schedule has been released.
For the first time since ninth-year head coach Buddy Stephens arrived on the Scooba campus, the Lions will kick off their 2016 football schedule with back-to-back road games. On the heels of the team’s Sept. 1 season opener against the Jones County Bobcats at Bobcat Stadium/Sim Cooley Field in Ellisville, EMCC will travel to Perkinston the following Thursday (Sept. 8) to meet the Bulldogs of Mississippi Gulf Coast at A.L. May Stadium.
With East Mississippi and Gulf Coast having combined to claim seven of the last nine MACJC state football championships dating back to the 2007 season, this year marks EMCC’s first regular-season meeting with the Bulldogs since 2011 and the Lions’ first trip to Perkinston since 2010.
The Lions’ four-game home slate begins with their MACJC North Division opener on Thursday, Sept. 15, against the Tigers of Northeast Mississippi. With kickoff set for 7 p.m. at Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus, EMCC will enter the upcoming campaign looking to extend current streaks of 17 consecutive home wins overall and 24 straight regular-season home victories spanning back to the 2012 and 2010 seasons, respectively.
Following a Sept. 22 trip to Fulton to face the Itawamba Indians at Eaton Field, the five-time reigning MACJC North Division champions will close out the opening month of the season at home by playing host to the Trojans of Mississippi Delta on Sept. 29.
East Mississippi’s month of October begins with a return trip to Ras Branch Field in Goodman to face the Holmes Bulldogs on Oct. 6. Homecoming week on the Scooba campus follows and will culminate on Saturday, Oct. 15, when the defending NJCAA Champion Northwest Mississippi Rangers return to Sullivan-Windham Field for a 2 p.m. contest against the Lions, who claimed the previous back-to-back national titles in 2013 and 2014. EMCC handed the Rangers their lone loss of the season a year ago with a 49-16 home victory over Northwest.
The EMCC Lions will wind down their regular-season schedule by taking on the Tigers of Coahoma on Thursday, Oct. 20, at James E. Miller Stadium in Clarksdale prior to entertaining the Hinds Eagles a week later (Oct. 27) in Scooba.
The EMCC-Hinds matchup will mark the first gridiron meeting between the two teams since they met twice during the 2011 season. After earning a 20-17 win during Week 2 in Raymond, East Mississippi claimed a 55-24 home triumph over Hinds during the 2011 MACJC State Semifinals en route to winning the state title and ultimately capturing the school’s first of three NJCAA football championships over a four-year span.
This year’s MACJC State Semifinals will take place on Saturday, Nov. 5, with the MACJC State Championship Game set for the following Saturday (Nov. 12).
Entering his ninth season at the EMCC football helm, Stephens owns the highest winning percentage among active NJCAA football coaches with an eight-year coaching mark of 76-11 (.874), including a 45-3 (.938) record against MACJC North Division opponents. Since 2008, the Lions have claimed three NJCAA national championships (2011, 2013 & 2014), four MACJC state titles (2009, 2011, 2013 & 2014) and seven regular-season division crowns (2008, 2009 & 2011-15).
EMCC 2016 Schedule
Sept. 1at Jones County, 7 p.m.
Sept. 8at Miss. Gulf Coast, 7 p.m.
Sept. 15NE MISSISSIPPI, 7 p.m.
Sept. 22at Itawamba, 7 p.m.
Sept. 29MISS. DELTA, 7 p.m.
Oct. 6at Holmes, 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 15NW MISS. (HC), 2 p.m.
Oct. 20at Coahoma, 6:30 p.m.
Oct. 27HINDS, 7 p.m.
