By By Jeff Byrd / staff writer
Sept. 25, 2002
East Mississippi Community College and Itawamba Community College always seem to have good close games over the years. The two teams meet again on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Fulton for an MACJC North Division game.
Itawamba won last year's game 18-17 in Fulton. The Lions were hurt by a couple of questionable calls. EMCC won in 2000, beating ICC 21-17 in Scooba.
This year, both teams enter with 1-2 records. Itawamba won its first of the season upsetting Northwest 6-5. East Mississippi, meanwhile, was plagued by bad breaks in a 3-0 loss to Northeast.
Lions head coach Tom Goode is hoping his team can get over its snake-bit nature.
Lion running back Marvin Sommerville would have gone over 100 yards for the game had his 49-yard TD run held up. Instead he finished with 65 yards on 12 carries. The Aliceville, Ala., product now has 214 yards and ranks fourth in the state.
Quarterback Daniel Spinks directs the EMCC offense. He was 7-of-14 for 84 yards against Northeast. But he was intercepted twice including one in the final 30 seconds that sealed the loss.
Northeast's time-consuming offense kept the ball away from the Lions in the fourth quarter. Spinks and his unit were able to run just four plays in the fourth quarter.
Spinks has completed 30-of-65 for 363 yards. The top targets are Chris Mattox (7 receptions for 107 yards) Niko Edwards and Tyler Richardson.
The Lions defense is paced by the state's top tackler in sophomore linebacker Ken Hollis who has made 38 solos and six assists. Hollis had 15 tackles in the Northeast game and was named the state's Defensive Player of the Week. Renuel Green has 22 stops while Joe White has 21.
Itawamba ranks last in the state in total offense with just 179 yards per game. They also have the third worst defense allowing 227.3 per game including 146 through the air. That could be good news for Spinks and the Lion offense.