East Central Community College and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC are tied at the top of the MACJC South Division standings with perfect 2-0 marks. Gulf Coast is 5-0 overall, while East Central is 3-2 on the season.
Last week East Central lost to co-North Division leader East Mississippi 24-0, while Gulf Coast took a 38-20 win over Copiah-Lincoln. This week’s games have East Central visiting Co-Lin at 6:30 p.m on Thursday and Gulf Coast hosting Southwest at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Other Thursday games around the MACJC have Holmes at Itawamba, Coahoma at Hinds and Northwest at EMCC. On Saturday Jones hosts Pearl River and Northeast visits Mississippi Delta.
— Austin Bishop
MCCULLOUGH TAKES SWAC HONORS AGAIN
For the second consecutive week, junior Felix Harper and senior Corey McCullough from the Alcorn State University football program were honored by the conference office.
Harper was named SWAC Co-Offensive Player of the Week, while McCullough won SWAC Special Teams Player of the Week.
In the 45-19 win Saturday over Mississippi Valley State, Harper threw for a career-high 396 yards including six touchdown passes and no interceptions. He was 21-for-30 throwing. Harper connected with LeCharles Pringle for three touchdowns, and Chris Blair twice for a 69-yard and 52-yard touchdown pass, respectively.
McCullough, a Louisville High School graduate, tallied nine points for the Braves in the victory. He connected on a 33-yard field goal in the third quarter, and was a perfect six-for-six in extra points. Additionally, all three of his punts landed inside the 20, and one was downed at the 1-yard line.
McCullough upped his career total to 38 field goals made, which are the most in school history.
— School Reports
HOLMES STUNS NORTHWEST
The homestanding Holmes Community College Bulldogs racked up 568 total yards of total offense on Thursday night to knock off the No. 3 Northwest Mississippi Community College Rangers to stay in first place in the North Division at 2-0.
With the win, the Bulldogs move to 2-3 overall. Holmes travels to Itawamba Community College Thursday night for a 6:30 p.m. contest. You can listen to the game on the Bulldog Radio Network. Itawamba will also stream the game at letsgoicctv.com.
Freshman quarterback Kyren Batey, freshman running back Danny Woodard and sophomore receiver Caleb Ducking each scored multiple touchdowns for the Bulldogs and paced the win over the Rangers.
— School Reports
ECCC STAR WINS AL BATTING TITLE
Former East Central Community College baseball standout and current Chicago White Sox star Tim Anderson finished the Major League Baseball season on Sunday with a 335 batting average, making him tops in the American League. The shortstop also ripped 18 homers, recorded 17 stolen bases, scored 81 runs, and drove in 56.
As a sophomore at East Central Anderson led all fo the NJCAA in hitting with a .495 average. The Whit Sox drafted Anderson in the first round. He had gone undrafted after his freshman season at ECCC, where he hit .360.
Anderson, now 26, played his high school baseball at Hillcrest in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He had a huge turnaround in 2019. He raised his average nearly .100 points, after hitting .250 in 2018 and .257 in 2017.
— Austin Bishop
MISSISSIPPIAN LEADS NATION
Former Laurel High School standout Omar Bayless is leading the NCAA in receiving at Arkansas State University. Bayless caught 10 passes for 213 yards including a 92-yard touchdown in a 50-43 win over Troy last week. On the year, he has 36 catches for 689 yards and seven touchdowns.
— Dale McKee
THE SEC ON TV
The two major television football attractions for the Southeastern Conference this Saturday are the CBS game at 2:30 p.m. between Florida and visiting Auburn and the t6 p.m. ESPN contest between Georgia and homestanding Tennessee.
Auburn is ranked No. 7 and Florida No. 10, while Georgia is currently No. 3. While the UGA-Tennessee game may night be competitive, it will be interesting as to how the Vols adjust as their schedule gets tougher.
The three SEC Network games have Ole Miss hosting Vanderbilt at 6:30 p.m.; No. 5-ranked LSU entertaining Utah State at 11 a.m. and Missouri entertaining Troy at 3 p.m. Mississippi State is open this week.
— Austin Bishop
ECCC TENNIS HAS SUCCESS
East Central Community College men’s and women’s tennis players combined to win 22 matches over a three-day period while competing individually in the ITA Southern Regionals Sept. 26-28 at the Northeast Park Tennis Center in Meridian.
East Central sophomore Chris Lawrance (York, Western Australia) made it to the Singles Finals, while Lawrance and doubles partner sophomore Isaac Santitto (Innisfail, Queensland, Australia) advanced to the Doubles Finals.
ECCC Lady Warrior freshmen Natalia Beltran (Bogota, Colombia) and Alejandra Vargas (Bogota Colombia) won three matches to claim the Back Draw Doubles on the women’s side.
—School Reports
HOLMES, EMCC ATOP MACJC NORTH
With only four games left in the regular season, the Bulldogs of Holmes Community College find themselves tied at the top of the MACJC North Division football standings alongside perennial NJCAA National power East Mississippi Community College.
Holmes shook the MACJC world with an impressive 47-42 win over Northwest Community College last week. At the time the Rangers were the No. 3 ranked team in the nation. While HCC has been outscored 139-96 on the season and stands at 2-3 overall, the important thing is that the Bulldogs appear to be peaking at the right time and are 2-0 in league play.
Holmes has a change to solidify its share of the top spot with a 6:30 p.m. rod trip to Itawamba on Thursday night. The Indians are 1-2 overall and 1-4 in league play.
— Austin Bishop
CUSA HONORS ABRAHAM
Southern Miss quarterback Jack Abraham earned the Conference USA Player of the Week honors for his role in a 31-13 victory over UTEP last Saturday to being league play.
The redshirt junior threw for a season-high 351 yards passing and three touchdowns passes on 19-of-28 attempts, including a 74-yard scoring strike to De'Michael Harris. He added touchdown passes of 22 and 6 yards.
He orchestrated a Southern Miss offense that collected 519 total offensive yards.
It was the second 300-plus passing game for Abraham this season and the fifth time in his 14th career game. It was also the third time he has thrown at least three touchdown passes in a game in his career and has thrown at least one TD pass in each of the last seven contests.
— School Reports
ANDERSON TAKES SOCCER HONOR
East Central Community College sophomore forward Leah Anderson was voted the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior College Women’s Soccer Player of the Week after picking up her second hat trick of the season. She was recognized for her play Sept. 23-29.
A native of Leyland, United Kingdom, Anderson scored three goals to help the Lady Warriors defeat Gulf Coast 5-1 on Sept. 24 in Decatur. She followed that with East Central’s only goal in a 2-1 home loss to Jones College on Sept. 27. She also scored a hat trick with three goals in a 5-0 win at Southwest on Aug. 30.
For the season, Anderson now has 12 goals and six assists to lead the team in both categories. She is currently tied for third place for the most goals in a season and second place for assists in a season in East Central Lady Warrior soccer history. With 16 career goals, she is also just four goals shy of tying the all-time Lady Warrior career record of 22 goals by Brooke White in the 2006-07 seasons.
— School Reports
EMCC PLACES HIGH IN RODEO EVENT
Led by first-place individual finishes from Jaylie Matthews and Myles Neighbors, the East Mississippi Community College rodeo teams placed third and fourth in women’s and men’s team competition, respectively, this past weekend at the UWA College Rodeo Showdown. The three-day event concluded Saturday night at the Don C. Hines Rodeo Complex on the University of West Alabama campus.
Matthews, a freshman out of Wynne, Arkansas, earned all of EMCC’s 180 total points in the women’s competition by claiming the barrel racing title with winning times of 15.59 and 15.74 seconds. Matthews is currently ranked second in the barrel racing world standings of the International Professional Rodeo Association.
In posting their second straight third-place team finish to open the fall portion of the NIRA Ozark Region schedule, the EMCC women trailed first-place Missouri Valley College (330 points) and runner-up Southern Arkansas University (295) in the final standings of the UWA event.
