By Staff
CHARGING AHEAD – ECCC's Ramon Williams looks to cut up field against Jones' Demarcus Moody in Thursday night's game at Decatur. Photo by Paula Merritt/The Meridian Star
By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
Oct. 11, 2002
DECATUR The 2002 football season hasn't been a kind one for the East Central Community College Warriors with injuries and close losses mounting week by week.
You can bet Thursday's 6-3 triple overtime win over second-ranked Jones will go a long way toward soothing many of those frustrations.
The teams were knotted at 3-3 at the end of regulation with both missing field goals in the first two overtime periods.
Travares Osley kicked a 23-yard field goal to put the Warriors up 6-3 in the third overtime and the ECCC defense then allowed the Bobcats just three yards on three plays. Nicholas Terracina, who entered the game as the leading kick scorer in the MACJC, misfired well to the left from 38 yards as the defending state champion Bobcats saw a 15-game winning string end.
Jones threatened early, but lost three fumbles in the first 23 minutes.
Jones took a 3-0 lead on a 27-yard field goal by Terracina with 7:02 left in the second quarter. The score was set up by a 61-yard interception return by Quinten Sullivan to the ECCC 28.
The Warriors pulled even with 3.4 seconds left in the first half on a 27-yard field goal by Osley. The drive's big play was a 17-yard pass from Kevin Stephens to Ronald Smith to the Jones 24.
Through three quarters, ECCC had just 104 yards and Jones only 92 after losing 34 on a high snap on a punt. The two entered the contest as the state's top two offensive teams.
The Bobcats had two chances at field goals in the fourth quarter. With 4:30 remaining, a bobbled snap led to Osley and Stacey Lewis sacking holder Seth Thompson for a loss of eight yards.
On their last possession in regulation, the Bobcats started from the ECCC 40 and had first-and-goal at the 7 following a 28-yard pass from Aaron Leak to Enos Hamilton. Terracina's 20-yard field goal try slammed into the right upright and ricocheted harmlessly to the waterlogged turf.
In the first overtime, ECCC's Ken Triplett barely clearly the line of scrimmage with a 49-yard field goal bid. Terracina was wide left from 26 yards.
In the second overtime, Terracina misfired from 36 yards with Osley coming up well short from 32.
In the third overtime, a 10-yard pass from Stephens to Smith and an 8-yard run by Ramon Williams set up Osley's game-winner from 23 yards out.
An incomplete third-and-7 pass from the 22 forced the Bobcats to try a possible tying kick from 38 yards out, but Terracina's effort was wide left.
It was another costly Warrior game as Adrian Eiland (ankle) and Horace Glenn (head) both left the stadium on stretchers.
ECCC (2-4 overall, 2-2 South) hosts Hinds a week from Saturday, while Jones (5-1, 2-1) hosts Pearl River that same day.