SCOOBA — After leading 14-3 at the half, East Mississippi Community College found itself in a tough position with about six minutes left in the third quarter on Saturday afternoon.
Itawamba Community College, which had struggled through the air in the first half, got the passing play it was looking for: a 30-yard touchdown from Karson Green to Dylan King over the middle.
The touchdown cut the Lions’ lead to 14-10, and after a three-and-out from the offense, things were looking bleak, until Tyler Woodard intercepted Green into plus territory for EMCC.
A change at quarterback saw Peter Parrish replace Eli Anderson, and almost immediately, EMCC turned on the afterburners, scoring 24 straight points en route to a 38-10 victory.
“I just did what I did,” Parrish said. “I went out there, utilized the film work I did throughout the week and took what they gave me. All my teammates were behind me. I just utilized my practice.”
Parrish ended up throwing for two touchdowns in the quarter-and-a-half or so that he played, completing six of seven passes for 77 yards.
After seeing some success in the running game early on, EMCC (5-3) strayed away from it for a bit in the middle, but with Parrish out there, the running game returned and with a vengeance.
He finished with over 100 total yards in the game, also gaining 28 on the ground. However, it wasn’t Parrish who was the focal point of the run but Kadarius Calloway and Mike McGowan, who combined for over 110 rushing yards.
Calloway, in particular, started that 24-point swing at the beginning of the fourth quarter with a 72-yard touchdown run down the left sideline.
“We had to go out there and talk to each other,” Calloway said. “We got together during the half, talked about it and moved on to the next play.”
Looking back at the first half, the Lions made some uncharacteristic plays and committed a number of penalties that kept Itawamba in the game.
Overall, EMCC committed 10 penalties for 105 penalty yards, half of those in the first 30 minutes of play.
However, Anderson made great use of his arm, throwing for two touchdowns and 178 passing yards in that first half, completing 73 percent of his passes.
“We’re the darnedest bunch I’ve ever seen,” EMCC head coach Buddy Stephens said. “We really put ourselves in bad predicaments sometimes with making mistakes and causing our own adversity.”
“I thought we improved on that from weeks past because we faced adversity and overcame that today. We continued to play hard, continued to play until the next play.”
Overcoming adversity on Saturday was massive for the Lions, who were just 2-2 in conference play coming heading into this contest and had traded off wins and losses over their past four games.
Despite the penalties, the defense came up big overall, especially in that second half.
Woodard and Reggie Nealy each had second-half interceptions and as a whole, the defense recorded three sacks and seven tackles for loss.
Everything culminated in a great way to end the home schedule for EMCC and a great way to send out the sophomores in their final game at Sullivan-Windham Field.
“This was my last game on this field,” Calloway said. “I can’t talk about it without coming to tears a little bit. I’m glad I won with these guys. There’s 43 sophomores here. You’ve got to have fun with it.”
The Lions will look to carry this momentum into their final game of the regular season on the road against Mississippi Delta Community College at 6:30 p.m. Thursday as the postseason picture will take its final form.
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