JACKSON — Juan Joseph misfired on his first three passes against Mississippi College Saturday night. He then completed his next 15 as Millsaps battered the Choctaws, 42-6.

Joseph passed for 263 yards and three touchdowns to lead the Majors to a win in the ninth annual Backyard Brawl at Harper Davis Field. It was Millsaps’ first win in the series since 2005. It also was the first win over MC for Millsap seniors and former Vicksburg High Gators Marcus Harris and Marcus Stokes.

“It’s the first time I’ve beaten MC,” Harris said. “I thought we would win, but I didn’t expect it to be this lopsided.”

The senior defensive back did his part, picking off an Adam Shaffer pass for his 11th career interception as a Major. Stokes had a sack and the Majors pass rush limited Shaffer to complete just 26 of 53 passes for 208 yards with two interceptions.

“We had a good rotation of linemen on him and just kept pressure on him,” Stokes said.

Mississippi College coach Norman Joseph, a Vicksburg native, was glum about his team’s performance, especially after coming in ranked in the Top 25 in NCAA Division III and having an 8-2 record last year.

“We ran 86 plays and we scored only six points. That is totally unacceptable,” Norman Joseph said. “Juan Joseph played great. We had opportunities to get sacks, but he got by us for either a run or a completion. We couldn’t get them off the field.”

After Juan Joseph’s three incompletions to begin the game, MC took its only lead of the game on a Kris Krueze 31-yard field goal.

Millsaps scored the next four times it had the ball. Joseph went twice to Donnie Epps for TDs, on tosses of 6 and 63 yards. On the latter score, Epps got behind the defense to make it 14-3 with 14 minutes, 12 seconds left in the second quarter.

Joseph later hit Eric McCarty on a 22-yard TD pass to up the lead to 21-3. With 3:10 left in the half Schuyler Huff scored on a 1-yard run to give the Majors a 28-3 halftime lead.

Krueze kicked a 22-yard field goal with 5:30 left in the third quarter to make it 22-6.

Millsaps came back with two rushing scores. Chris Skinner scored on a 1-yard run. Former St. Aloysius player and Majors tight end John Robert Burnett took two Choctaws out on the play.

Millsaps’ final score came on Burt Pereira’s 52-yard run with 13:11 left in the game. Taylor Russolin made the last of his six PAT kicks to account for the 42-6 final.