Indians fall to No. 9 Jones County, will host Holmes on Thursday

Indians fall to No. 9 Jones County, will host Holmes on Thursday
Adam Gore/LetsGoICC.com

ELLISVILLE, MS – Freshman Richard McQuarley combined for nearly 200 yards of total offense in the Indians' 35-14 road-loss to the No. 9 Jones County Junior College Bobcats on Saturday.

McQuarley (Meridian) rushed for 162 yards on 24 carries and caught 6 passes for 36 yards.

The Indians (0-2, 0-0 MACJC North) got on the board on their opening drive of the contest when Kwadra Griggs (Greenwood) found Jaquez McMillian (Southaven) for a 17-yard touchdown pass, but the Bobcats (2-0, 0-0 MACJC South) answered on the ensuing drive with a 27-yard scoring pass.

Griggs completed 19-of-28 passing for 134 yards, a touchdown, and 2 interceptions.

ICC took a 14-7 lead into the break after Cartin McBride (Calhoun City) blocked a punt and scooped it up for a 23-yard touchdown return.

"That was a big play for us," said Coach Sean Cannon. "We had the momentum, but we've got to understand that we have to keep the momentum when we've got it. I didn't think we let up in the first half, but a couple of turnovers in the red zone really hurt us and stopped our momentum to be able to take a bigger lead into the break."

Jones County scored 28-unaswered points in a disastrous third quarter for the Indians.

The Bobcats scored on their opening drive of the second half to tie the game, 14-14, on a 10-yard touchdown run and took the lead four seconds later when the Indians fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Jones County recovered it in the end zone.

"We just stood there and watched it roll in the end zone," Cannon said. "It was just a long, long night especially in the second half. We played one of the top teams in the country toe-to-toe, but our youth and inexperience showed up again tonight, but we've got to learn from this and make teams beat us instead of us beating ourselves."

Jones County would tack on two more touchdowns to pull away for the 35-14 victory over the Indians.

"Penalties and turnovers got us," said Cannon. "We beat ourselves. Good teams are going to beat you when you turn the ball over the way we did and we never could find a way to respond in the second half."

The Indians will open division play when they host the Holmes Community College Bulldogs (1-1, 0-0 MACJC North) for Military Appreciation Night at Eaton Field. The Bulldogs opened the season with a 28-21 win over Hinds Community College and dropped a 28-14 decision to Pearl River Community College last Thursday.

"Those guys are just like us when it comes to being battle tested," commented Cannon. "They're going to come in with a great football team playing option football that's going to create a lot of problems for us on defense and they look the part on defense. It's going to be a battle."

The game will be broadcasted on WAFM 95.7 FM and can be watched live on LetsGoICC.com starting with the Davis Ford Pregame Show at 6:40 p.m. leading up to the the First American National Bank kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m.

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