No. 16 Wolves take on No. 1 East Mississippi in opening round of MACJC Playoffs

WESSON, Miss. – For the fourth time in the last eight years, the Copiah-Lincoln Community College Wolves will meet the East Mississippi Community College Lions in the MACJC Playoffs. Co-Lin has won two of the last three playoff games against the Lions, and five of the last eight meetings, including regular season games. Contests between the teams have always been thrilling; such as Co-Lin's last minute 47-46 MACJC Playoff win over the Lions in 2012, East Mississippi's only loss at Sullivan-Windham Field. Co-Lin enters the game as the No. 2 seed team out of the MACJC South Division, while East Miss is the No. 1 team from the North Division. Saturday's game is the Wolves first playoff game since 2014, and the winner will advance to the MACJC State Championship on Saturday, November 10. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m., and fans can watch the action live at emccathletics.com/video/YouTubeLive or listen live at colinathletics.com and WMJU 104.3 FM in Brookhaven.

East Miss leads the MACJC in defense, giving up 203.1 yards a game with 110 passing yards and 93.1 rushing. Co-Lin is fifth in the league with 327.9 given up a game, 138.2 passing and 189.7 rushing. The Lions also lead the state on the offensive side with 3,884 yards of total offense to Co-Lin's 3,024.

Co-Lin's quarterback Hayden Davis, who is second in the state in passing efficiency with a 146.8 rating, leads the MACJC with 16 touchdowns and has thrown for 1,309 yards. Messiah deWeaver leads the Lions at QB. deWeaver has thrown for 1,286 yards and nine scores. Co-Lin's Kundarrius Taylor and East Miss' Dontario Drummond are tied for most receiving touchdowns in the state with eight each. Drummond leads the way between the two in yardage with 602 to Taylor's 481.

On the ground, the Lions have the league's leading scorer in Deion McIntosh who has 15 touchdowns. McIntosh is also third in the state in yardage with 864. Rico Owens and Deion Dampier handle most carries for the Wolves. Dampier has 663 yards and 10 scores on the year, while Owens has 486 yards and seven scores.

Defensively, Swayze Bozeman leads the Wolves with 82 tackles, third best in the MACJC. Taijh Alston has posted 66 tackles and leads the Wolves with nine tackles for loss and four sacks.  Natrone Brooks, Edwin Whitlock, and Harrell Blackmon lead Co-Lin's pass defense. Brooks leads the team with eight breakups to Whitlock's six, and Blackmon leads the team with three interceptions.

Fred Hervey leads the Lions with 74 tackles on the year, while Everitt Cunningham leads East in both sacks and tackles for loss with nine and 15 respectively. JaQuez Akins and Keilos Swinney lead the defensive backs with three interceptions each.

To be successful Saturday Co-Lin must maintain a two-dimensional offense and limit penalties. The Wolves are 4-0 on the year when combining for 150 passing yards and 100 rushing yards as a team. Co-Lin averages 84.3 yards per game in penalties, a number that needs to be lower to help limit the Lions' opportunity and to help keep Co-Lin drives alive.

For more information on the Co-Lin football program follow @colinathletics or @CoLinFootball on Twitter or visit colinathletics.com.