EMCC Football Releases Schedule for 2015 Season

SCOOBA, Miss. (WCBI/EMCC Athletics) – Winners of three of the last four NJCAA football championships, East Mississippi Community College will bid to make additional NJCAA history when the Lions hit the field for their 2015 football campaign.  With kickoff now less than four months away, EMCC’s nine-game football schedule was announced this week.

With five road dates among their regular-season slate for the first time since 2012, the two-time reigning national champions will play the same nine-game schedule as a year ago with the playing sites flipped from their 2014 slate.  Owners of the three national championships to go along with four state titles and six division crowns over the past seven years, the 2015 EMCC Lions will entertain MACJC North Division opponents Coahoma (Sept. 10), Itawamba (Sept. 26-Homecoming) and Northwest Mississippi (Oct. 15) at Sullivan-Windham Field in Scooba while traveling to division foes Northeast Mississippi (Sept. 17), Holmes (Oct. 8) and Mississippi Delta (Oct. 22).

(EMCC Athletics)

Entering the upcoming 2015 football campaign winners of 44 of their last 46 games dating back to the program’s 2011 national championship season, the Lions will play host to MACJC South Division member Southwest Mississippi, Aug. 27, in Scooba to kick off East Mississippi’s eighth season under the guidance of head football coach Buddy Stephens.  With a seven-year composite record of 68-10 since 2008, Stephens currently tops all active NJCAA football coaches in highest winning percentage with an 87.2-percent success rate.

EMCC will then venture to Wesson to open the month of September by meeting the Wolfpack of Copiah-Lincoln, Sept. 3, in a rematch of last year’s Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) State Championship Game claimed by the Lions, 54-15, at H.L. Stone Stadium.  Last year’s 39-point victory at Co-Lin marked East Mississippi’s fourth MACJC State/NJCAA Region 23 football championship in a six-year span.

While bringing a current 24-game winning streak into the start of the 2015 campaign following successive unbeaten national championship seasons, EMCC could be in a position to make NJCAA history during Week 3.  Provided they get by Southwest and Co-Lin to open the slate, a home victory by the Lions over the Coahoma Tigers on Sept. 10 could mark their record-setting 27^th consecutive win dating back to the start of their 2013 national championship season.  Presently, Blinn College (Texas) holds the NJCAA’s all-time standard with 26 straight triumphs on the gridiron between the 1995 and 1997 seasons.

After perhaps taking a shot at making history during the first one-third of the regular-season slate, East Mississippi will close out the month of September by first taking on Northeast Mississippi, Sept. 17, at Tiger Stadium in Booneville prior to welcoming the Indians of Itawamba on Saturday, Sept. 26 for Homecoming 2015 on the Scooba campus.

Three road contests await the Lions during the month of October, beginning with their first trip to Bobcat Stadium/Sim Cooley Field in Ellisville since 2008 to face the Jones County Bobcats on Oct. 1.  The following week (Oct. 8), EMCC will visit Ras Branch Field in Goodman to battle the Holmes Bulldogs.  East Mississippi will close out regular-season division play by first hosting Northwest Mississippi on Oct. 15 and then heading to Moorhead a week later (Oct. 22) to meet the Trojans of Mississippi Delta at Jim Randall Stadium.

With the top two teams from the MACJC’s North and South Divisions advancing to postseason play, the 2015 MACJC State Semifinals and MACJC State Championship Game will take place on consecutive Saturdays, Oct. 31 and Nov. 7, respectively.

Presently rating as one of only three schools, along with Blinn and Butler, to have claimed back-to-back NJCAA football championships, the EMCC Lions will have an opportunity this coming season to become the first NJCAA member school to win three straight national titles on the gridiron.

2015 EAST MISSISSIPPI COMMUNITY COLLEGE FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Thurs., Aug. 27 – SOUTHWEST MISSISSIPPI – 7:00 p.m. – SCOOBA

Thurs., Sept. 3 – at Copiah-Lincoln – 7:00 p.m. – Wesson

Thurs., Sept. 10 – COAHOMA* – 7:00 p.m. – SCOOBA

Thurs., Sept. 17 – at Northeast Mississippi* – 6:30 p.m. – Booneville

Sat., Sept. 26 – ITAWAMBA* (Homecoming) – 2:00 p.m. – SCOOBA

Thurs., Oct. 1 – at Jones County – 7:00 p.m. – Ellisville

Thurs., Oct. 8 – at Holmes* – 7:00 p.m. – Goodman

Thurs., Oct. 15 – NORTHWEST MISSISSIPPI* – 7:00 p.m. – SCOOBA

Thurs., Oct. 22 – at Mississippi Delta* – 7:00 p.m. – Moorhead

*-MACJC North Division games

MACJC State Semifinals – Sat., Oct. 31; MACJC State Championship – Sat., Nov. 7