By Mark H. Stowers
Moorhead, MS – With lots of new faces on the Sandy Wilson Field, the Mississippi Delta Community College Trojan new faces got a wet welcome to the MACCC with a 33-0 home loss to the Jones College Bobcats. Sheets of rain accompanied the kickoff of the 2025 inaugural season opener for new Head Coach Ernest Jones. After getting a good look at his new team, Coach Jones and his assistants are ready to make some changes before heading to Perkinston this coming Thursday, September 4 to take on the #10 nationally ranked Bulldogs of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College at 7:00 p.m.
“I don’t want to make up any excuses but it was the first game for a lot of our players. I’ve got 65 players and for 50 of them, it was their first game,” Coach Jones said. “The lights were shining for them, brightly. And they weren’t ready for that moment.”
A solid Bobcat team kept the Trojans at bay on both offense and defense.
“They were physical. They were aggressive. Exactly like they said they were going and I don’t think we were ready for that aggressive fight,” Coach Jones said. “I don’t want to say our offense was stagnant but we couldn’t do anything. We were 0.2 yards a run and 0.3 yards a pass. Our defense was trying to do it, but that makes it tough. They were 3-out-of-16 on third down so we got them off the field on third down but we gave up a bunch of big plays. Three long passing plays for 125 yards and that made a difference because they scored each time.”
He explained, “there were some good things we saw on defense but we have to have it as a whole – defense, offense and special teams. Our punter (Ceidrick Hunt 11 punts for 43.6 yards per kick) did an outstanding job out there. But we’re going to learn from it. This game gave us a lot of film and corrections to look at. We’re not going to throw it away. We played the game and we lost the game but we’re going to use what we did to try and get better. We’ll definitely get better. We saw some positive things.”
In looking ahead, Coach Jones knows the first road trip has its challenges.
“We’ve got a tough opponent in Mississippi Gulf Coast and we’re going to try and zero in and practice hard and get the guys focused and locked in on this game plan,” Coach Jones said. “We’ve got some film so at least we can game plan but we’ll be playing a much better football team.”
The team “came out pretty healthy” after game one, but Coach Jones and his staff are looking at making changes – especially on the offensive side.
“They are all young and we’ve got to figure out what young guy is the best guy. Both of our quarterbacks haven’t taken a snap. We’re very young at wide receiver and we’ve got to find two or three guys who will help us move the ball. On defense, I’ve got to find ways to tighten up. We have to find a way to not give up big plays and we missed a lot of tackles out there too.”
In the Thursday night game, Jones took the opening kickoff at their own 35-yard line. The first play was a 44-yard pass to move deep into MDCC territory. Four plays later, the Bobcats scored a 10-yard touchdown run by Ky’Yon Harris. The PAT was good, and Jones led 7-0, taking only 2:27 off the first-quarter clock.
The Trojan offense went three and out on its first series and punted back to the Bobcats, who started drive #2 at their own 45-yard line. Six plays later, Harris scored his second touchdown of the night on a two-yard run, giving a 14-0 lead and only taking 2:48 off the clock. The Bobcats had two 22-yard pass completions in the drive.
After another stalled drive and Trojan punt, the Bobcats gained 57 yards on 10 plays, but the Trojan defense stood tall and stopped the drive when Jones went for a fourth and goal at the three-yard line for no gain.
Two possessions later, the Bobcats would add more points to the scoreboard when an eight-play drive stalled at the Trojan eight-yard line. Jones converted the 35-yard field goal to take a 17-0 lead. The Bobcats added a touchdown, capping a five-play, 62-yard drive, taking 2:29 off the second quarter clock. A missed PAT gave Jones a 23-0 lead with 4:22 left before halftime.
The Trojans failed to score in the second half, and Jones added a touchdown in the third on a two-play, 97-yard drive that started with a four-yard rush and ended with a 93-yard TD pass. That made the score 30-0. Then, in the fourth quarter, the Bobcats tacked on a 25-yard field goal on a fourth-and-four at the MDCC six-yard line. That made it 33-0 with 8:32 remaining in the game. The drive included nine plays covering 46 yards.
Statistically, Jones College picked up 20 first downs and accumulated 464 yards over 62 offensive plays. The Bobcats had 256 yards passing on 10-17 attempts and rushes for 208 yards on 45 attempts.
The Trojans' side of the stat ledger wasn’t pretty, with only three first downs on the night and 30 total yards of offense over 46 plays. Trojan quarterbacks (Evans Schippers 2-for-2 for 19 yards and Caden Clark 6-for-20 for nine yards) combined to go 8-for-22 for 28 yards. The ground game gained just two yards on 24 rushes. MDCC had six penalties for 64 yards, taking away some bigger offensive plays.
Trojan punter Ceidrick Hunt had a busy night, punting 11 times for 480 yards, averaging 43.6 yards per kick. The Trojans fumbled three times, losing one, and surrendered two sacks, resulting in a nine-yard loss.
On defense, the Trojans were led by Jaquian Payton and Stanley Burrow had seven tackles each. Three Trojans – Jermaine McRoy, Javen Mallett and Za’Bauri Chandler each had five total tackles.
The Trojans travel to Perkinston to take on Gulf Coast Community College on Thursday, September 4, at 7:00 p.m. To follow the Trojans, check out www.mdcctrojans.com.
