SCOOBA – As MACJC North Division champions for the second straight year, the seventh-ranked East Mississippi Lions begin their quest for a school-first state football championship Saturday afternoon by playing host to No. 19 Jones County on the Scooba campus. Kickoff for Saturday’s semifinal-round state playoff contest is set for 2 p.m. at EMCC’s Sullivan-Windham Field.

Tickets for Saturday’s playoff contest will be available for purchase on the day of the game at a cost of $10 for adults and $5 for students. Pre-game tailgating will run from 10 a.m. until game time on the grounds of Aust Hall.

Saturday’s EMCC-JCJC state playoff contest will be broadcast by WFCA-FM radio (107.9) with Jason Crowder set to describe the play-by-play action and Glen Beard slated to provide the color analysis. The game can be heard online via EMCC’s athletics website – http://athletics.eastms.edu – or by logging onto www.wfca108.com.

With unblemished 6-0 MACJC North Division records each of the last two seasons under the direction of head coach Buddy Stephens, East Mississippi has become the first junior college football program in Mississippi to post back-to-back unbeaten divisional marks since Northwest Mississippi registered three consecutive perfect North Division records during the 1998, 1999 and 2000 campaigns. EMCC’s current 15-game divisional winning streak dates back to the 2007 campaign.

Making a second consecutive state football playoff appearance for the first time in school history, this year’s EMCC squad is also bidding to become the first representative from the MACJC’s North Division to compete in the state championship football game since Holmes Community College claimed the state title in 2002. A year ago, during Stephens’ first season at the East Mississippi helm, the Lions dropped a 42-35 home decision to Pearl River in the 2008 state playoff semifinals contested in Scooba. Since the present-day Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges (MACJC) officially went to the state football playoff system beginning in 1970, EMCC’s only previous playoff appearance prior to last year came during the 1984 campaign.

With a second straight eight-win regular season already in the records book, this year’s East Mississippi contingent is looking to post the school’s first nine-win season since head coach A.J. Kilpatrick’s 1969 Lions’ team went 9-1 overall to finish second in the state behind Pearl River. The last time EMCC registered successive eight-win seasons came under the guidance of Hall of Fame EMJC head coach Bob “Bull” Sullivan, when the acclaimed Lions from Scooba reeled off consecutive records of 8-3 in both 1961 and 1962 followed by a school-best 10-1-1 mark in 1963 and 9-2 record in 1964 during a successful four-year span.