EMCC’s Ty Keyes named MACCC Offensive Player of the Week

PRESS RELEASE (EMCC Athletics)-For his efforts in leading East Mississippi Community College to last Thursday’s 47-23 home victory over then-No. 4 Jones College, EMCC sophomore quarterback Ty Keyes has been selected the MACCC’s Football Offensive Player of the Week.

A Southern Miss transfer and former two-time Mississippi Gatorade Football Player of the Year at Taylorsville High School, Keyes completed 26-of-41 passes for 342 yards and four touchdowns against the Jones Bobcats last week. His four touchdown passes all came during the first half and were all caught by different receivers.

The 6-foot-2, 225-pound signal-caller also picked up 44 rushing yards on six attempts to account for 386 yards of total offense a week ago.

The 24-point victory over Jones improved EMCC head coach Buddy Stephens’ career home record versus the Bobcats to 6-0 dating back to 2008. The win also enabled the 1-1 Lions to bounce back from their season-opening 23-20 road setback at now-No. 10 Copiah-Lincoln.

Having moved up six notches in this week’s NJCAA Division I Football Poll, the seventh-ranked EMCC Lions are in the midst of a current three-game home stand and will play host to the Holmes Bulldogs on Thursday (Sept. 21). Kickoff for the MACCC North Division opener is set for 7 p.m. at Sullivan-Windham Field on the Scooba campus. East Mississippi will then close out its longest football home stand since the program’s initial conference championship season (2009) by entertaining current fifth-ranked Mississippi Gulf Coast on Thursday, Sept. 28.

Currently 2-0 on the young season following home wins over MACCC South Division foes Pearl River (31-0) and East Central (24-17), Holmes is guided by second-year head coach Marcus Wood, who played football at EMCC as well as having previously served as an assistant coach and college administrator on the Scooba campus.

EMCC’s Stephens owns a 13-1 career record (7-0 in Scooba & 5-1 in Goodman) as head coach against Holmes. A year ago (Sept. 15, 2022) at Ridgeland High School, the Lions lengthened a 28-7 halftime lead by scoring 17 unanswered fourth-quarter points to claim a decisive 45-9 victory over the Bulldogs.

Statistically thus far this season, EMCC’s Keyes currently ranks fifth in NJCAA Division I football with an average of 297 passing yards per game. He has also connected on 48-of-79 (60.8%) passes for the year with six touchdowns and only one interception. Holmes’ Lonnie Ratliff IV stands second nationally at 318.5 passing yards an outing through the season’s first two contests.

Additionally for the Lions on offense, sophomore transfers Jacobi Moore and Cam Wright lead the way with 10 and nine catches, respectively, along with 119 and 114 receiving yards and one touchdown apiece. On the ground, sophomore running back Kiron Benjamin has rushed for a team-high 84 yards on 21 attempts through Week 2.

The EMCC Lions are coming off an impressive defensive effort in which they outscored Jones College, 33-3, over the final 41 minutes of last week’s victory in addition to forcing nine quarterback sacks on the night.