SCOOBA — The tides had turned at Sullivan-Windham Field toward the end of the third quarter in favor of East Mississippi Community College.
Northwest Community College quarterback Ren Helfey threw an interception to a wide open Laurence Sullivan Jr., who returned it 58 yards for a pick-six.
With 4:19 remaining in the third quarter, EMCC took the lead late, 21-20, in a hotly-contested top-10 matchup, but the momentum stopped there for the Lions.
In the final 19 minutes of Thursday night’s game, Northwest went on to score 18 unanswered points, flipping the score and dominating to the end for a 38-21 victory.
“We have a pick-six, and then we have a high loft kick and we kick it out of bounds and they get the ball on the 40,” EMCC head coach Buddy Stephens said. “We then turn around and we’re not doing enough offensively. We scored 14 points in a game like this. We have to score more.”
EMCC’s (3-2) offensive touchdowns came in the second and third quarters, respectively, both after long, sustained touchdown drives from Northwest.
The first was a Mike McGowan 41-yard touchdown run, his first rushing touchdown of the season, which put the Lions out in front, 7-6.
The second game after Northwest began the second half on its second 70-plus-yard touchdown drive of the game, ending in a 31-yard receiving touchdown to D.T. Sheffield.
Eli Anderson and the Lions’ offense answered right back not even three minutes later as Anderson hit Duke Miller on a fade route toward the back-right corner of the end zone, a perfect over-the-shoulder 9-yard touchdown pass, making it 20-14 Rangers at that point.
At the point of the pick-six, morale was undoubtedly high on the EMCC sideline.
“It was definitely a momentum shift, but we were trying to make sure that we didn’t get down on ourselves and to understand that it comes with the game,” wide receiver Josh Aka said. “You have to take the good and the bad.”
In that second half, especially, EMCC had chances to come back in the game, chances to put together long drives, keep its defense off the field and put the pressure on Northwest.
As the game wore on, the Lions were tiring out on defense, having been out there for long stretches of the game and that played a role later as EMCC failed on multiple fourth-down attempts.
“We just didn’t execute,” Anderson said. “That’s all it was. We got behind the chains, made bad matters worse right there in the fourth quarter, something you can’t do in a ballgame.”
Two wild plays ended up directly resulting in touchdown drives for NWCC and essentially were the same play, just one for each team.
On first, just after EMCC scored its pick-six, it looked to have intercepted Hefley on the second consecutive drive.
Rodney Groce Jr. picked off the Rangers but had the ball forced out on the return, and the fumble ended up in the hands of Northwest. NWCC scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive.
The second happened at the beginning of the fourth quarter, with Anderson throwing an interception to Northwest. On the play, the ball was forced out by the Lions but recovered by the Rangers.
Once again, Northwest scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive. Even with those weird plays both happening in the second half, there’s much to do moving forward for EMCC.
“We’ve got to protect the quarterback,” Stephens said. “We’ve got to run the ball. That’s the biggest thing. We have to be able to run the ball, and we’re not able to do that. That’s where we need to do a better job, and that’s on my shoulders.”
EMCC’s rushing offense and defense will certainly be looked at this week, having given up 301 rushing yards to the Rangers and recording just over 110 yards on the ground on offense.
Going up against Coahoma Community College next week, that will be one of the keys to success, and if the Lions can get the ball working on the ground like last year — a game in which they outran the Tigers 162-43 — a repeat of 2021’s 52-6 win is likely.
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