With only four games left in the regular season, the Bulldogs of Holmes Community College find themselves tied at the top of the MACJC North Division football standings alongside perennial NJCAA National power East Mississippi Community College.
Holmes shook the MACJC world with an impressive 47-42 win over Northwest Community College last week. At the time the Rangers were the No. 3 ranked team in the nation. While HCC has been outscored 139-96 on the season and stands at 2-3 overall, the important thing is that the Bulldogs appear to be peaking at the right time and are 2-0 in league play.
Holmes has a change to solidify its share of the top spot with a 6:30 p.m. rod trip to Itawamba on Thursday night. The Indians are 1-2 overall and 1-4 in league play.
Gulf Coast and East Central are on top of the MACJC South Division standings with identical 2-0 league records.
— Austin Bishop
CUSA HONORS ABRAHAM
Southern Miss quarterback Jack Abraham earned the Conference USA Player of the Week honors for his role in a 31-13 victory over UTEP last Saturday to being league play.
The redshirt junior threw for a season-high 351 yards passing and three touchdowns passes on 19-of-28 attempts, including a 74-yard scoring strike to De'Michael Harris. He added touchdown passes of 22 and 6 yards.
He orchestrated a Southern Miss offense that collected 519 total offensive yards.
It was the second 300-plus passing game for Abraham this season and the fifth time in his 14th career game. It was also the third time he has thrown at least three touchdown passes in a game in his career and has thrown at least one TD pass in each of the last seven contests.
— school reports
THE SEC ON TV
The two major television football attractions for the Southeastern Conference this Saturday are the CBS game at 2:30 p.m. between Florida and visiting Auburn and the 6 p.m. ESPN contest between Georgia and homestanding Tennessee.
Auburn is ranked No. 7 and Florida No. 10, while Georgia is currently No. 3. While the UGA-Tennessee game may night be competitive, it will be interesting as to how the Vols adjust as their schedule gets tougher.
The three SEC Network games have Ole Miss hosting Vanderbilt at 6:30 p.m.; No. 5-ranked LSU entertaining Utah State at 11 a.m. and Missouri entertaining Troy at 3 p.m. Mississippi State is open this week.
— Austin Bishop
ECCC STAR WINS AL BATTING TITLE
Former East Central Community College baseball standout and current Chicago White Sox star Tim Anderson finished the Major League Baseball season on Sunday with a 335 batting average, making him tops in the American League. The shortstop also ripped 18 homers, recorded 17 stolen bases, scored 81 runs and drove in 56.
As a sophomore at East Central, Anderson led all for the NJCAA in hitting with a .495 average. The White Sox drafted Anderson in the first round. He had gone undrafted after his freshman season at ECCC, where he hit .360.
Anderson, now 26, played his high school baseball at Hillcrest in Tuscaloosa, Ala. He had a huge turnaround in 2019. He raised his average nearly .100 points, after hitting .250 in 2018 and .257 in 2017.
— Austin Bishop
BRADLEY SCORES FOR CAJUNS
Former Choctaw County High School standout Ja’Marcus Bradley caught two passes, including a 1-yard touchdown reception, to help lead the University of Louisiana-Lafayette to a 37-24 win over Georgia Southern last Saturday.
Bradley and the Ragin’ Cajuns are set to play host to Appalachian State on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m.
— Austin Bishop
ANDERSON TAKES SOCCER HONOR
East Central Community College sophomore forward Leah Anderson was voted the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior College Women’s Soccer Player of the Week after picking up her second hat trick of the season. She was recognized for her play Sept. 23-29.
A native of Leyland, United Kingdom, Anderson scored three goals to help the Lady Warriors defeat Gulf Coast 5-1 on Sept. 24 in Decatur. She followed that with East Central’s only goal in a 2-1 home loss to Jones College on Sept. 27. She also scored a hat trick with three goals in a 5-0 win at Southwest on Aug. 30.
For the season, Anderson now has 12 goals and six assists to lead the team in both categories. She is currently tied for third place for the most goals in a season and second place for assists in a season in East Central Lady Warrior soccer history. With 16 career goals, she is also just four goals shy of tying the all-time Lady Warrior career record of 22 goals by Brooke White in the 2006-07 seasons.
— School Reports
MISSISSIPPIAN LEADS NATION
Former Laurel High School standout Omar Bayless is leading the NCAA in receiving at Arkansas State University. Bayless caught 10 passes for 213 yards including a 92-yard touchdown in a 50-43 win over Troy last week. On the year, he has 36 catches for 689 yards and seven touchdowns.
— Dale McKee
ECCC, GULF COAST TIED FOR LEAD
East Central Community College and Mississippi Gulf Coast CC are tied at the top of the MACJC South Division standings with perfect 2-0 marks. Gulf Coast is 5-0 overall, while East Central is 3-2 on the season.
Last week East Central lost to co-North Division leader East Mississippi 24-0, while Gulf Coast took a 38-20 win over Copiah-Lincoln. This week’s games have East Central visiting Co-Lin at 6:30 p.m on Thursday and Gulf Coast hosting Southwest at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Other Thursday games around the MACJC have Holmes at Itawamba, Coahoma at Hinds and Northwest at EMCC. On Saturday Jones hosts Pearl River and Northeast visits Mississippi Delta.
— Austin Bishop
EMCC PLACES HIGH IN RODEO EVENT
Led by first-place individual finishes from Jaylie Matthews and Myles Neighbors, the East Mississippi Community College rodeo teams placed third and fourth in women’s and men’s team competition, respectively, this past weekend at the UWA College Rodeo Showdown. The three-day event concluded Saturday night at the Don C. Hines Rodeo Complex on the University of West Alabama campus.
Matthews, a freshman out of Wynne, Arkansas, earned all of EMCC’s 180 total points in the women’s competition by claiming the barrel racing title with winning times of 15.59 and 15.74 seconds. Matthews is currently ranked second in the barrel racing world standings of the International Professional Rodeo Association.
In posting their second straight third-place team finish to open the fall portion of the NIRA Ozark Region schedule, the EMCC women trailed first-place Missouri Valley College (330 points) and runner-up Southern Arkansas University (295) in the final standings of the UWA event.
— School Reports
