Powered by a career night from running back Gavin Griffin, East Mississippi Community College had its best offensive outing of the season last Thursday as it captured a 49-27 victory over visiting Pearl River Community College to move to 5-2 on the season.
The 2023 Class 1A Mr. Football from Velma Jackson used 22 carries to rack up a career-high 220 yards and four touchdowns – a performance that earned him his second MACCC Player of the Week honor this season. It’s the most rushing yards under head coach Buddy Stephens since Lakenderic Thomas’ 248 yards against Georgia Military in the 2013 national championship game. In just the first half, Griffin produced runs of 50, 44 and 37 yards and three scores for a total of 175 yards. He got the Lions onto the scoreboard with a 5-yard run early in the first quarter and turned on the jets for a 50-yard touchdown just 11 seconds into the second quarter. It only took four plays to go 59 yards for the Lions’ next score, which was carried in by Griffin from 3 yards out, and he punched in his final score midway through the third quarter on a 10-yard run.
In total, EMCC finished with 310 rushing yards, and 50 of those yards were provided by quarterback Trey Irving III, who ran the ball six times for 50 yards and a touchdown that gave his team a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. PRCC used a 12-yard touchdown throw from quarterback Kobe Pierce to Howard Kinchen to make it a one-score game heading into the second quarter before Griffin’s second touchdown run of the night. Pierce fired a 10-yard touchdown pass to Kedrick Triplet in response, but the Wildcats missed the PAT and trailed 21-13.
Griffin’s last two scoring runs of the night pulled the Lions ahead 35-13 and away for good. Wildcat running back Kylin Champagne scored on a 9-yard run after a 10-play 73-yard drive late in the third quarter, and EMCC struck back with two more touchdowns, a 33-yard pass from Irving to Brenn Moody and Donald Passmore snagged an interception and returned it 27 yards to strengthen the Lions’ grip on the victory. Jacobi Jefferson gave PRCC its final score of the game on a 5-yard run with 3:38 left to play.
The Lions achieved 464 yards of offense and were 4-of-4 on fourth down, 6-of-11 on third down conversions and only punted once. Irving was 17-of-22 for 145 yards through the air with a score and an interception, and Moody led the team with two catches for 41 yards.
Coming off scoring their most points scored all season, and on a three-game win streak, the Lions play at Mississippi Delta Community College (0-7, 0-4) at 7 p.m. today in a MACCC North contest. Griffin is just 152 yards shy of 1,000 yards on the season and leads the conference in touchdowns with 14. He’ll be going up against a Trojan defense that gives up the second-most points (42.1) and the fourth-most rushing yards (201.9) in the conference. MDCCC has produced just 16 points on the season – two of which are from a safety by the Trojans’ defense – and the team has been shut out four times this season.
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