Lions climb to No. 3 in NJCAA

EMCC’s Coach Buddy Stephens encourages his team.

Posted Thursday, October 21, 2021 12:00 am

By Austin Bishop

Fresh off the heels of a 52-6 thrashing of then No 15-ranked Coahoma, the East Mississippi Community College football team has moved two steps up the ladder to No. 3 in the latest NJCAA Division I Football Poll.

The Lions, now 7-0 on the year, will close out the regular season on the road, traveling to non-division foe Copiah-Lincoln tonight (Thursday), before traveling to Fulton on Oct. 28 to face North Di-

vision foe Itawamba the following week.

While EMCC has already clinched a spot in the up- coming MACCC state playoffs, the Lions can claim the North Division title outright with a win over ICC.

Jones College out of Ellisville holds the top spot with 103 total points and five of the seven allocated first-place votes. The Bobcats, like EMCC, is undefeated through seven games. The other two first place votes belong to Iowa Western Community College who is No. 2 in the country with a 5-0 mark and 93 poll points, just three more than the 90 claimed by EMCC.

The rest of the top 10 consists of Independence (Kansas) Community College followed by New Mexico Military Institute, Coffeyville, Snow, Trinity Valley, Northwest Mississippi and Iowa Central at No. 10.

Other MACCC teams in the poll are Hinds (5-2) at No. 12 and Mississippi Gulf Coast (5-2) at No. 13.