LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Murphy’s Law, an axiom derived from American aerospace engineer Edward A. Murphy Jr. in the late 1940s, states that, ‘Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.’
On Wednesday night in Little Rock, everything that could go wrong did go wrong for East Mississippi Community College football, and it all came at the worst time.
The Lions were gunning to tie a record with their sixth junior college national championship, but instead, they suffered their first-ever national championship loss in brutal fashion.
Iowa Western was unrelenting, scoring at least 13 points in every quarter for a 61-14 beatdown of EMCC, leaving the program experiencing a feeling it had never felt before.
“It stinks,” head coach Buddy Stephens said. “You had a team that fought really hard all year long. [The loss] doesn’t change the fact that there’s a great group of young men in there. … I didn’t do my job anywhere close to where I needed to do my job and I think it showed on the scoreboard. I’ll have to wear that one. It’s not on those kids. That’s on me.”
Just once before during Stephens’ tenure in Scooba had the Lions (10-3) given up 60 or more points in a game, but Iowa Western (12-1) hit them like a freight train from the start and kept pushing, even into garbage time.
Mistakes piled up early and things snowballed from there at War Memorial Stadium.
“I know my guys gave it everything they had,” quarterback Ty Keyes said. “We came up short this year and I’m going to wish them the best next season. … We didn’t execute well on offense and that showed today. We didn’t come out and play our best ball.”
Where everything went wrong for EMCC, everything went right for the Reivers, who racked up 553 yards of total offense while averaging 7.9 yards per play.
Defensively, a blocked punt and fumble recovery were key moments, but keeping a potent Lions offense to under 325 yards of total offense spoke for itself.
“I hated that we didn’t have a better showing for our college, for our players, for our student body, our community,” Stephens said. “I hate that, but it happened and now we hope to build from it and learn from it and not make those mistakes again. … They executed. We didn’t.”
While EMCC’s loss – its first loss in any championship game, state or national – certainly ends the season on a sour note, it doesn’t take away from the run the Lions went on to get to the championship game.
From a 2-2 start to an eight-game winning streak and three-straight wins over top-10 opponents, this group has undoubtedly left its mark on this program.
“Brotherhood,” Keyes said. “Everyone stayed together. A lot of guys could have quit, but no one ever quit. … I’m glad to have been part of this team.”
Early mistakes loomed large almost immediately
After three-straight empty possessions to begin the game, two from EMCC and one from Iowa Western, the Lions looked to force the Reivers into yet another empty drive.
However, on 3rd and 7, what looked to be a sack on Iowa Western quarterback Hunter Watson was negated by a facemask penalty on Shone Washington.
Two plays later, the Reivers opened up the scoring with a 19-yard passing touchdown, the first of their nine touchdowns on the night.
“We got behind the 8-ball and it kind of snowballed,” Stephens said. “It hurt us and then you’re playing from behind and then you find yourself playing to end the game. We don’t ever want to be in a game like that again.”
Blocked punt in the second quarter proved to be the turning point
EMCC had just forced Iowa Western into a three-and-out on Iowa Western, trailing 13-7 with 11:44 left to play in the first half.
Plenty of time was left on the clock and a touchdown with a successful extra point would have put the Lions up by a point, flipping the momentum back in their favor. It would have also been the first offensive touchdown of the game after three-straight punts to open things up.
A 24-yard rush from Ty Keyes was just what the doctor ordered to jumpstart the EMCC offense, but a false start penalty and two incompletions, with a nine-yard run from Jaylen Jennings sandwiched in the middle, forced a fourth-straight punt to begin things.
On the ensuing snap, however, Trace Beard’s punt was blocked by Iowa Western and with EMCC already inside its own half of the field, the Reivers recovered at the 39-yard line, setting up a back-breaking touchdown drive on a short field that got the gears moving toward an eventual blowout.
“We didn’t block on a punt,” Stephens said. “They were in punt safe and they had one guy off the edge that worked his backside off and he got there and he blocked that punt. I thought that was the turning point in the game.”
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