Jones College’s bid for a remarkable comeback came up one play short on Thursday night.

The Bobcats scored twice in the fourth quarter to slice a 20-point deficit to six, but Mississippi Gulf Coast came up with a red zone stop with just over a minute left to win 20-14 in a Top 20 showdown in Perkinston.

Jones quarterback Fred Barnum, a former Warren Central star, threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Manny Jones to start the comeback with 13:53 left in the game. Ladamian Webb cut it to 20-14 with a 7-yard TD run with 5:59 left.

No. 4 Gulf Coast (4-0, 1-0 MACJC South) went three-and-out on its next possession, and No. 13 Jones (2-2, 1-1) got the ball back with 4:30 remaining.

Barnum completed a 29-yard pass to Natorian Watts and Webb carried on three straight plays to move the ball to the 7-yard line. Jones bogged down there, however.

An illegal substitution penaly and an incomplete pass on third down made it fourth-and-6 at the Gulf Coast 12-yard line. Navonteque Strong sacked Barnum at the 22-yard line on the next play to force a turnover on downs with 1:04 remaining, and Gulf Coast ran out the clock.

Barnum finished 9-of-20 passing for 116 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. Webb ran for 73 yards and a TD. The Bobcats had 232 total yards.

Jones defensive back Roderick Hicks, a former Vicksburg High star, had five tackles. Another former VHS star, Greg Hayden, averaged 37.2 yards on six punts.

For Gulf Coast, Chance Loveritch completed 18 of 25 passes for 202 yards and one touchdown and one interception. Omni Wells ran for 50 yards and a touchdown.

Northwest Mississippi 19, Co-Lin 14
Robert Hentz II and Justin Jackson delivered sacks on back-to-back plays with less than two minutes remaining as No. 3 Northwest Mississippi (4-0) snuffed out the last threat from No. 8 Copiah-Lincoln (3-1) and hung on to win.

Urriah Shephard ran for 115 yards and a touchdown for Northwest, which led 19-0 after Cole Catalano’s 33-yard field goal midway through the third quarter.

Co-Lin got on the board with a 37-yard TD pass from Danny Clark to Antoine Robinson 3 1/2 minutes later, and cut it to 19-14 on Tyrus Wheat’s 24-yard fumble return TD early in the fourth quarter.

Co-Lin’s last two drives, however, both ended on downs. A 10-play march reached the Northwest 33-yard line before stalling, and the Wolves’ final drive crept inside Ranger territory as the clock ticked under two minutes.

Two incompletions and then the sacks by Hentz and Jackson ended the Wolves’ last chance.

Hinds 10, Southwest Mississippi 0
No. 19 Hinds Community College (3-1, 1-1 MACJC South) forced three turnovers, had eight tackles for loss, and allowed only 208 yards to lead the Eagles to a shutout of Southwest Mississippi.

Southwest Mississippi (0-4, 0-2) was shut out for the second game in a row.
Hinds scored the only touchdown of the game five minutes into the first quarter when quarterback Jack Garrad found former Warren Central star Joe’vontae Shorter on an 8-yard pass to cap an 11-play, 66-yard drive.

The Eagles’ other score came off the foot of kicker Conner Smith, a former St. Aloysius standout, who connected on a 21-yard field goal with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.

Sophomore running back Don Ragsdale led the way for the Hinds offense with 27 carries for 107 rushing yards. He also caught three passes for 20 yards.

“Our defense and special teams played an outstanding game. Good teams pick each other up, and that is what our defense and special teams did for us tonight,” Hinds head coach Larry Williams said.

Holmes 14, Northeast Mississippi 6
Holmes Community College (1-3, 1-0 MACJC North) rolled up 242 rushing yards, while its defense held Northeast Mississippi to 229 total yards to win Thursday night.
Danny Woodard led Holmes’ rushing attack with 70 yards, most of them on a 51-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter.

Linebacker Tyler McDaniel had 13 tackles, including 5.5 tackles for loss, two sacks and two pass breakups. As a team, Holmes had six sacks.

Itawamba 30, Coahoma 21
Clark Mills threw four touchdown passes, two of them to Barry Flowers, and Itawamba Community College (1-3, 1-1 MACJC North) held off Coahoma Community College (1-3, 1-1).
Three of Mills’ touchdown passes covered 40 yards or more, and the other was a 24-yarder to Flowers.

Coahoma also got a 53-yard touchdown run by Hiram Wadlington in the second quarter to take a 24-7 lead. Coahoma got as close as 24-21 before Mills’ 40-yard TD pass to Qua Davis in the opening minute of the fourth quarter gave Itawamba some breathing room.

East Central 35, Pearl River 0
Freshman quarterback Holman Edwards threw three touchdown passes and East Central Community College’s defense pitched its second straight shutout in a win over Pearl River (1-3, 0-2 MACJC South).

It’s the first time since 1976 than East Central has posted back-to-back shutouts. Pearl River finished with just 84 total yards.

Edwards completed 10 of 12 passes for 79 yards and the three touchdowns, including an 11-yarder to former Vicksburg High star Joshua Pedyfoot in the third quarter.

East Central also scored on a 37-yard interception return by Fred McGee, and on special teams when Alvin Dempsey recovered a wild punt snap in the end zone.

East Mississippi 41, Mississippi Delta 23
Despite a sluggish start with turnovers on its first two offensive possessions, No. 5 East Mississippi amassed 538 total yards and claimed a road victory over Mississippi Delta (0-4, 0-2 MACJC North).

Quarterback Connor Neville, a Washington State transfer, completed 27 of 41 passes for 309 yards, one touchdown and one interception for East Mississippi (3-1, 2-0).

Eight receivers caught passes for the Lions, with sophomores Austin Morphis (eight catches for 79 yards), Jason Brownlee (seven for 93) and Pervis Frazier (six for 85) leading the way.

Byron Walker threw three touchdown passes, two of them to Lebarron Jones, for Mississippi Delta.