BILOXI—#2 East Mississippi Community College overcame 21 penalties and a game effort by Georgia Military to win Mississippi Bowl VI 52-32 and claim the 2013 NJCAA Championship. The Lions (12-0) have now won two out of the last three NJCAA Championships and also claimed their second Mississippi Bowl title.
“We just went out and executed our game plan,” said East Miss. quarterback Dontreal Pruitt, who went 16-of-36 for 325 yards, 3 touchdowns, and one interception and was named Offensive MVP for his team. “We were kind of going back-and-forth with those guys but we had a lot of emotion today and we came out on top.”
EMCCC’S Lakenderic Thomas (#24) rushed for 248 yards & 3 TD’S against Georgia Military Dec. 8.
The East Mississippi offense also rushed for 260 yards, 248 of those coming from running back Lakenderic Thomas, who also scored three times. Lion wide receiver Antoine Adkins caught 6 passes for 186 yards and two scores in the victory.
After taking a 24-19 halftime lead, The Lions saw Georgia Military running back Javon Robinson break off a 74-yard TD run on the first play of the third quarter that gave the #1 ranked Bulldogs a 26-25 lead. Robinson, the NJCAA’S leading rusher, carried the ball 38 times for 238 yards and 3 TD’S on the afternoon.
From there, East Mississippi put up 13 unanswered points then countered another Robinson TD with 15 more points to close the game. Thirteen of those points came on two Pruitt TD passes and the other two came when the Lion special teams unit blocked a Bulldog punt for a safety.
After East Mississippi took the game’s opening kickoff and scored on a 15-yard run by Thomas, Georgia Military (11-1) jumped out to a 16-7 lead in the first quarter behind a Patrick Thomas TD run, a 21-yard score by Robinson, and a 21-yard field goal by Brandon Rutherford. East Miss. answered with 17 points of their own to take the lead at halftime.
Thirty penalties were called durning the game, with 20 infractions committed by East Mississippi. Despite foggy, drizzly weather, more than 4,000 fans attended the game. In the six years of the event, the MACJC Champion team is 5-1.
EMCC’S Allen Sentimore (#9) intercepts a pass against Georgia Military Dec. 9.
A running back rushed for 248 yards and a receiver caught 186 yards of passes and neither was named MVP? Seriously? The MVP was 16 for 36? Okay, so congrats to EMCC for the championship and to Ladd Taylor for heading up another awesome Mississippi Bowl.
The reciever was given the Offensive MVP award, and the QB was overall player.
Special thanks to Barry Harper and PawPaw Herring for sponsoring this awesome event. Thanks for all your hard work.As I said before…… “THAT WAS SOME GOOD FOOTBALL PAW PAW” Go LIONS