Indians fall to No. 2 East Mississippi, 59-13
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

SCOOBA, MS – The Itawamba Community College football team ran into a buzz saw in the form of East Mississippi Community College as the No. 2 Lions picked up a 59-13 victory over the Indians to earn the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) North Division championship on Thursday.

"East Mississippi is as good as advertised," said ICC head coach Jon Williams. "We didn't play as well as I thought we could have, but give credit where credit is due because in my team this is the best team in the country and they played like it."

Trailing 14-0, Griff Loftis (Mooreville) found Archie Dennard (Hollandale Simmons) on a 4-yard touchdown pass before the Lions pulled away for a 31-7 halftime lead.

"We left some points on the field in the first half, but you have to give credit where credit is due because they made the plays with their backs against the wall and we couldn't take advantage of the opportunities when we had them," said Williams.

Loftis later found Shante Rogers (Itawamba AHS) on a 49-yard scoring strike to make it 39-13 in favor of the Lions after a failed two-point conversion with 6:52 left in the third quarter.

The Indians 13 points was the most points allowed on the season by the Lions.

Dontreal Pruitt, last week's National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Player of the Week, passed for three touchdowns and rushing for another to lead the Lions (9-0, 6-0 MACJC North) to the 59-13 victory.

"We're never happy with a loss because we play to win, but I think we came away with some positives that we can build on in practice this week and hopefully be able to see these guys again in the state championship in two weeks," said Williams.

Loftis threw for 260 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions with Rogers hauling in 3 receptions for 106 yards and a touchdown while Dennard had 48 yards and a touchdowns on 3 catches.

Defensively, Carderius Dean (Byhalia) had 11 tackles (8 solo; 3 assists). Darius White (Grenada) had 5 solo tackles, 2 pass break ups, and an interceptions returned 29 yards while Devan Gilleylen (Shannon) had 7 solo tackles with 2 sacks for a loss of 12 yards.

ICC will look to rebound next week when they travel to Jones County Junior College (8-1, 5-1 MACJC South) to take on the No. 4 Bobcats in the MACJC State semifinals at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday.

"We are looking forward to a great week of practice in preparation for the playoffs because it's something we haven't done in a while," said Williams. "We are proud to be back in the playoffs, but just getting in is not good enough… we need to win because we want to play in that state championship game."

The Bobcats defeated Northwest Mississippi Community College (1-8, 1-5 MACJC North) 52-3 to close out the regular season.

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