East Mississippi Community College held Copiah-Lincoln to 8 yards rushing on 19 carries Thursday night in a 31-7 victory over the Wolves in Wesson.
The No. 3 Lions improved to 8-0, while the Wolves fell to 3-5 in the nondivision game.
Jamari Jones connected with Duke Miller for scoring passes of 6 and 29 yards to open the scoring for the Lions, who lead 14-0 at the half. The first TD pass capped a 13-play, 75-yard drive for EMCC, while the second came after a 12-play drive that took 5 minutes, 20 seconds off of the game clock.
Copiah-Lincoln’s best chance to score during the first half came on a 13-play, 74-yard drive that chewed up 7:25, but Bryce Lofton’s 34-yard field goal try sailed wide left with 1:10 to go in the first half.
The Wolves cut the lead in half on their first drive of the second half, as quarterback Paul Hargrave rolled out and found Tyquan Henderson at the goal line. Henderson seemed to wrestle the ball from a defender as they both fell into the end zone. The 47-yard touchdown came on a third-and-10 play just 1:48 into the third quarter.
Capping a nine-play, 80-yard drive that began late in the third quarter and consisted of eight rushing plays, EMCC’s Ethan Conner reached the end zone on a 4-yard keeper to extend the lead to 24-7 with 11:42 remaining in the game.
The Lions then ate up an additional 5 minutes on the game clock by running 10 consecutive times on their final scoring drive of the game, ending in Montae Spivey’s 11-yard TD burst at the 2:12 mark.
It was the first rushing touchdown of the year for the Arkansas transfer, who finished with a season-high 77 rushing yards on 16 attempts.
Jones threw for 170 yards and two touchdowns on 18-of-29 passing in addition to rushing for 65 yards on 13 attempts. His top target was Joshua Aka, who had five catches for 65 yards.
The Lions have clinched a share of their 10th MACCC North Division title since 2008 and can win the crown outright by defeating Itawamba on Thursday in Fulton.
The Lions will return home to open the MACCC playoffs by hosting the South Division’s No. 2 seed at 2 p.m. Nov. 6 at Sullivan-Windham Field in Scooba.
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