Indians defeat Mississippi Delta 39-9 in North Division opener
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

MOORHEAD, MS – Freshman quarterback Griff Loftis threw for 331 yards and three touchdowns and sophomore receiver Rashad Pargo had 121 yards and two scores to help lead Itawamba Community College to a 39-9 win over the Mississippi Delta Community College Trojans.

"I'm very proud of our players," said ICC head football coach Jon Williams. "They did exactly what we asked of them to do to be able to win this game.

The Indians (3-0, 1-0 MACJC North) took a 7-0 lead on a 12-yard scoring run by Courtney Gladney (Olive Branch) at the 9:09 mark of the first quarter and added a 27-yard field goal by Tyler Jackson (Oxford) after Randal Boyd (Forest) recovered a muffed punt to give ICC a 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Mississippi Delta (0-3, 0-1 MACJC North) answered back with a 27-yard field goal by Evan Russell to make it a 10-3 game with 12:43 left in the second quarter.

ICC took a 17-3 lead when Loftis (Mooreville) found Pargo (Aberdeen) on a 4-yard scoring toss set up by a blocked punt by Boyd, who scooped up the loose ball and rumbled to 18 yards to the 4-yard line.

"The two plays on special teams were huge for us," said Williams. "It really gave us a shot in the arm and helped up set the tone to be able to grab the momentum teams need to be able to be successful on the road."

Loftis, who drew his first start of the season, gave the Indians a 23-3 halftime on a 28-yard pass to Jarvis Bentley, (Columbus, GA) who finished the game with 67 yards receiving and a touchdown on five catches.

ICC scored 14 unanswered points to start the third quarter on a 5-yard touchdown pass to Pargo and a 2-yard run by LaDarrell Hunt (Shuqualak) before the Trojans scored on a 5-yard run by Justin Leavy in the closing seconds of the third quarter.

Freshman linebacker Ted Esom (Bruce) had a breakout night with a season-high eight tackles, two for a loss of six yards and recorded a safety for the Indians' last score of the night with 1:53 left in the game.

The Indians offense totaled 474 yards, including a season-high 143 yards rushing. Tobias Lofton (Forest) rushed for 68 yards on nine carries while Gladney had 63 yards and one touchdown on five attempts.

"I was proud of the way stepped in and stepped up for us offensively," Williams said. "We were without our starting running back and quarterback simply because we wanted to test out our younger guys. We wanted to see what they were made of and they grew up tonight by learning from their mistakes and fighting for the win."

Ronald Carswell (Macon, GA) and had five catches for 98 yards.

The Indians held Mississippi Delta to 218 yards of offense (111 rushing; 107 passing) behind the play of freshman linebacker CJ Jackson (Water Valley) who recorded 11 tackles, 4.5 for a loss of 22 yards and two sacks for a loss of 11 yards.

"The defense had another solid knock-out night," said Williams. "They played very disciplined and very sound while still being really aggressive throughout the night. I thought we had some guys that we have been waiting to come out of their shell showed signs of performing the way we expected of them when we recruited them to our program."  

ICC will host the Holmes Community College Bulldogs (1-2, 1-0 MACJC North) Thursday night at Eaton Field.

"Holmes is a lot better than their record indicates," Williams said. "They beat a good Northeast team by 20 points and will be coming in with a lot of confidence and momentum."

The Bulldogs picked up their first win of the season 34-14 over Northeast Mississippi Community College (1-2, 0-1 MACJC North) after dropping their first two games of the season to 10-8 at Jones County Junior College and 46-12 in their home opener against Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

"They can put a lot of points on the board in a hurry with a very balanced attack and can keep you from putting any points on the board," said Williams. "We will have to be ready defensively and take advantage of our opportunities when they present themselves on offense."

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. and the game can be heard on WAFM 95.7 FM (Amory) and online at www.fm95radio.com.