By Staff
GOING NOWHERE – East Mississippi's Marvin Sommerville bowls through MississippiDelta defenders for a big gain. Photo by Paula Merritt/The Meridian Star
By Jeff Byrd / staff writer
Oct. 6, 2002
SCOOBA The smallest distance proved to be the most difficult for East Mississippi Community College here on a hot, muggy Saturday afternoon at Sullivan-Windham Field.
Visiting Mississippi Delta was able to dodge as many bullets as your favorite action hero and came away with a 17-7 win.
The loss was particulary devastating to East Mississippi head coach Tom Goode. Twice the Lions reached the Delta 1-yard line but came away empty handed on both opportunties.
On the next play, Lions quarterback Daniel Spinks threw an intereption in the endzone. The Trojans would have three on the day including one for a second quarter touchdown return.
The total yardage wasn't close. East Mississippi outgained Delta 394-198. Spinks threw for 292 yards off 19 completions in 33 attempts.
Yet Delta maximized on its scoring chances getting 10 points out of its only two sustained drives of the game to go with a 30-yard interception return TD from Tavoris Cox.
The Lions didn't. Besides, the fiascos at the Delta 1, the Lions missed three field goals and also had a fumble off a Spinks sack inside the Delta 10 in the second quarter.
Delta CC head coach Jim Southward was relieved and elated to come out with a victory. The Trojans had dropped their first four games of the season before clawing out the win against the Lions.
Delta improves to 1-4 on the season and is now 1-2 in the north division. East falls to 2-3 overall and 1-2 in the north division.
Down 10-0 in the third quarter, Spinks capped an 85-yard Lion drive with a 26-yard touchdown pass to Chris Maddox. The drive was aided by a 27-yard run by Marvin Sommerville which saw 15 more yards tacked on by a flagrant facemask penalty. Will Moseley added the PAT kick to make it 10-7 with 6:23 left in the third.
Delta roared right back. A 35-yard sweep by Ebony Johnson set in motion a 64-yard scoring drive. Robert Clark dove in from a yard out for the score. Jay Jones' kick made it 17-7 with 4:22 left in the quarter.
Back came the Lions. An 11-yard run by John Henderson followed by a diving 13-yard grab by Edwards on third down got the Lions out of a 1st-and-20 hole. Spinks then hit Thomas Harris on a 32-yard pass to the Delta 5.
A four-yard burst by Henderson got it to the one. But before the Lions could run the next play, Spinks saw a problem.
Backed up five yards, Spinks then threw a hurried pass that was intercepted by Delta's Jason Lane who ran it back to the Trojan 40.
The Trojans got the ball back, but it was on their own 10 90 yards away. Still, Spinks moved the club hitting five passes including gains of 15 and 25 yards to Niko Edwards and a 27-yarder to Harris.
The Lions faced a fourth down at the 19. Though down 10, Goode went for a play rather than a field goal. That's because Moseley had missed wide on field goals from the 48, 36 and 36 yards in the first half.
It was a good choice because the Lions got a break on a pass interference call on Delta. They then got another defensive flag on Delta to give them four fresh downs at the Trojan three.
A sweep run on second down by Henderson nearly got the six but he was ruled a inches short. On third down, Spinks tried to sneak it but was stopped. On fourth down, a dive by Gerrod Williams was stuffed and the Trojans had held, just four inches from their own goal-line.
Cox's TD return came with 2:36 left in the first quarter. His second pick in the final 1:30 of the game closed out the Lions.
Jones added a 30-yard field goal with 4.6 seconds left in the half to give Delta a 10-0 halftime lead.
Sommerville finished with 65 yards rushing on 14 carries. Henderson, out of New Hope, had 48 off 14 totes.
Clark led Delta with 84 yards passing going 5-for-12. Noah Ingram had 60 yards rushing.