No. 4 Indians humbled in loss to No. 9 Co-Lin

No. 4 Indians humbled in loss to No. 9 Co-Lin
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

WESSON, MS – The words of Itawamba Community College head coach Jon Williams best summed up the Indians' loss to Copiah-Lincoln Community College on Thursday.

"It was a good old fashion tail kicking," Williams said. "I think this was good for us and hopefully we'll look back at this game as a much needed loss to humble us a little bit."

Co-Lin's Daniel Fitzwater had a break out night throwing for a season-high 459 yards and four touchdowns to help lead the No. 9 Wolves to a 48-7 win over the No. 4 Indians in a National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Top 10 showdown on Thursday. 

Fitzwater put the Wolves (5-1, 2-1 MACJC South) on top 7-0 after finding Casey Gladney for a 73-yard touchdown pass.

The Indians' (5-1, 3-0 MACJC North) first offensive play of the night resulted in an interception and Co-Lin quickly cashed in the miscue with a 31-yard scoring toss to Courtney Foy.

ICC weathered the first-quarter storm and cut Co-Lin's lead in half, 14-7, when Griff Loftis (Mooreville) found Shante Rogers (Itawamba AHS) on a 7-yard pass on the first play of the second quarter, but Co-Lin would answer with a 2-yard TD run by Van Lee to take a 20-7 halftime lead.

Rogers had 50 yards on 3 catches.

The Indians failed to take advantage of five trips into the red zone as the Wolves rolled to the victory.

"We're disappointed especially with our overall effort," said Williams. "Give Co-Lin a lot of credit because they are a really good football team. You always look for the reason you get beat like this, but at the end of the day it all goes back to effort and our effort wasn't where we need it to be for this type of game."  

Loftis finished the night with 153 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions, one returned 74-yards for a touchdown, on 13 of 36 passing with Jarvis Bentley (Carver, GA) hauling in 5 receptions for 55 yards.

CJ Jackson (Water Valley) and Carderious Dean (Byhalia) each had 11 tackles with Devan Gilleylen (Shannon) making 10 stops in the loss. 

ICC will look to rebound as they return to division play when they take on Coahoma Community College on Saturday, October 12th for Homecoming in Clarksdale.

"We left Co-Lin with a bad taste in our mouths and sometimes the best way to get rid of it is to get right back at it," Williams commented. "We are looking forward to seeing what our team is made of and how they are going to respond this week against a very dangerous and tough Coahoma team."

Coahoma (0-6, 0-3 MACJC North) dropped a heart-fought 27-17 road loss to Northeast Mississippi Community College (3-3, 3-0 MACJC North) on Saturday.

Kickoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. The game can be heard on WAFM 95.7 FM and seen on LetsGoICC.com starting at 1:40 with the Davis Ford Pre-Game Show.

For more information on ICC football, follow ICC Athletics on Twitter (@LetsGoICC).