At least 10 Eupora High School graduates will be playing sports on the junior college or four-year college/university level during 2019-2020. Four will be playing football, four softball and two baseball.
Lamarcus Caradine will be playing football for Belhaven, while Chavez Embry will be at the University of West Alabama. On the junior college level. Edwin Herard is at Holmes and Camron Culpepper at Southwest Mississippi.
Al Dumas will be playing baseball at East Mississippi Community College, while Tanner Knight will be doing the same at East Central Community College. Delta Claire Newman will be enjoying her sophomore season playing softball at Northwest Community College, while Kylie Richardson is at Holmes, Alley Reed at Northwest, and Jameelah Marshall at East Mississippi Community College.
If you know of other Eupora graduates who are competing collegiately this school year please e-mail Austin Bishop at starsportsboss@yahoo.com or text him the information to 601-938-2471.
— Austin Bishop
TOP-RANKED LIONS FALL IN OPENER
The preseason top-ranked and reigning two-time national champion Lions of East Mississippi Community College had their 17-game winning streak snapped by dropping a 24-16 road decision to the Hinds Eagles during Thursday night’s season-opening MACJC football action played at Gene Murphy Field/Joe Renfroe Stadium.
Hinds’ DeMario Nichols stepped in front of a would-be EMCC receiver and sprinted 83 yards for the game-clinching touchdown with 2:33 remaining in the contest.
Coach Buddy Stephens’ EMCC Lions look to rebound from their first loss since midway through the 2017 season when they fell at Northwest Mississippi by playing host to the Wildcats of Pearl River Community College on Thursday (Sept. 5). Kickoff for EMCC’s home opener is set for 7 p.m. at Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus.
EMCC’s season-opening defeat at Hinds also marked just the sixth setback in the last 92 games for the Lions dating back to the 2011 season and only the 14th loss overall in 124 decisions spanning back to Stephens’ first season (2008) at the East Mississippi football helm.
— School Reports
REBELS SEEKING MORE OFFENSE
While the Ole Miss defense played well in the Rebels’ 15-10 loss to Memphis on Saturday, surprisingly the Ole Miss offense did not look as explosive as normal. The Tiger defense only allowed 173 total offensive yards to the rebel offense, as Matt Corral only passed for 93 yards, and the team only rushed for 80 yards. This Ole Miss offense needs to find its rhythm or this season could be a plethora of tough losses.
— Cooper Sanders
JACKSON
TOUCHDOWN CLUB SPEAKERS ANNOUNCED
The Jackson Touchdown Club, in its 73rd year of existence, has announced its slate of guest speakers for the 2019 season. The meetings are held each Monday at 6 p.m. at the River Hills Club in Jackson, which is located at the intersection of Lakeland Drive and Ridgewood Road.
Club Membership is $330 per person, which includes tickets to each event. Admission to each event for non-members and guests is $35 per person. Space is limited. Call 601-506-3186 for more information.
This year’s schedule of speakers is as follows: Sept. 9, USM athletic director Jeremy McClain; Sept. 16, Ole Miss radio personality Richard Cross; Sept. 23, award-winning columnist Tony Barnhart, known as Mr. Football; Sept. 30, MSU head football coach Joe Moorhead; Ot. 7, ESPN recruiting analyst Tom Luginbill; Oct. 14, NFL official and Brandon resident Sarah Thomas; Oct. 21, The voice of the University of Southern Mississippi sports, John Cox; Oct. 28, USM head football coach Jay Hopson; Nov. 4, the voice of MSU radio, Neil Price; Nov. 11, Holly Rowe of ESPN; Nov. 18, Ole Miss head football coach Matt Luke; Nov. 25, Sports radio talk show host and MSU football color commentator Matt Wyatt. The series concludes on Dec. 2 with Most Valuable Senior Night, featuring the top senior of all 10 of Mississippi’s football playing universities/colleges.
— Austin Bishop
BEST ON THE RESERVATION
When Alcorn State University senior place-kicker Corey McCullough banged home a 44-yard field goal for the Braves against the University of Southern Mississippi on Saturday night the Louisville High School graduate became the Braves’ career leader in field goals made.
McCullough, who had a school-record 17 field goals as a sophomore and tied it with 17 as a junior, passed Wilfredo Rosales as the all-time field goal leader with 35 on the third quarter kick. USM won the game 38-10.
— Austin Bishop
AROUND THE STATE
Jackson State fell to Bethune Cookman, 36-15, and Mississippi Valley threw the ball 52 times Saturday night in their 26-20 loss to Tennessee State.
This week Valley visits Lamar, while Jackson State travels to Mobile to battle South Alabama this week. Mississippi College opens the season at Alcorn State while Delta State opens their season at home versus Tusculum on Thursday night. Millsaps also plays host to Belhaven University on Thursday night at 6 p.m.
— Dale McKee
CRAZY NIGHT IN THE JUCO WORLD
Upsets are fairly rare in the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges, but they were commonplace on Thursday night.
Not only did No. 1-ranked EMCC fall to Hinds, but Coahoma picked up the biggest win in the school’s history when the Tigers knocked off No. 4 Jones College 18-10 in Clarksdale. Other scores on Thursday night saw Northwest beat East Central 26-13, Gulf Coast down Mississippi Delta 49-9, Co-Line nip Holmes 27-21, ,Pearl River edge Itawamba 35-31 and Northeast outlast Southwest 19-13 in three overtimes.
EMCC and Jones both are seeking redemption this Thursday as the Lions play host to Pearl River at 7 p.m. and the JC Bobcats pay a visit to Holmes at 6:30 p.m. Other 6:30 games have East Central hosting Itawamba and Northeast visiting Co-Lie. Other 7 p.m. games have Hinds visiting Miss. Delta, Coahoma traveling to Gulf Coast and Northwest hosting Southwest.
— Austin Bishop
