1993

Warriors, Bears gam ends in rainy 20·20 tie

By Scott Walters The Meridian Star

left in the third quarter, Southwest enjoyed its first lead - at 13-12. The Warriors would strike back quickly. E CCC moved 80 yards in seven plays. J ermaine Boler did the honors on 35-yard touchdown rush. Sam Brown carried on the two-point play, as ECCC moved on top 20-13, with 12:27 left to play. That lead would be very short lived. It took Southwest two plays to answer. Chester scored on a 76-yard sweep around right end. Murphy tied the contest with a kick at the 11:24 mark. Southwest moved 78 yards on its last pos– session of the night The Bear-. also used up the last :::ix minutt:- of tht clock, before mi~.">ing the luck. ECCC coach Reese Bridgman was most dis– appointed that his squad could not put away the guests in the first half. "We had our chances," said Bridgman. "We completely dominated the first half and they should not have been in the game at the half. "Then in the second half, they came out and did a better job of executing their ofll:mse. Still, we should h ave been farther ahead at the half." A four-yard run by James McGee put the Warriors on the board. Eddie Hunt set ECCC up on the Southwest 21 with a fumble recov– ery. The kick failed and the hosts led 6-0. On the Bears' next possession, ECCC's Daniel Spivey and Patrick Washington com– bined to block a punt. Eddie Hunt raced 15 yards with the loose pigskin for the touchdown. The two-point try failed as a completed pass from Todd Vowell to ·Russell Johmon was ruled a trap, instead. After the Warriors lost a fumble and missed two additional fie ld goal tries, the Bears offense fmally got on track. Southwest racked up 230 yards in the game's second half to sal– vage the tie. Chester rushed for 145 of those yards on nine carries. East Central finished with 312 yards of total offense. Brown led all ECCC backs with 101 yards on 14 carries. ECCC will host Northwest next Thursday at 6:30 in Decatur.

DECATUR- The East Central Community College Warriors and the Southwest Community College Bears battled through the rain, wind, and cold temperatures for three hours here Thursday night. And, when all was said and done, the two squads had accomplished nothing. A failed 28-yard Southwest field goal attempt with only seven seconds remaining left the teams in a 20-all South Division tie. Both teams a r e now 1-6-1 overall. while ECCC m ntams a one-game lead over the Bears in tlt dn'lsiOnal race. "I think it was disappointing," said Southwest coach Larry Kinslow. "We both knew this was our last real good shot at a win. The next two weeks for both of us will be tough, so it was disappointing." The Beats end the year with 5-2 Pearl River and 4-3 East Mississippi. ECCC has it even worse - closing with 5-2 Northwest and then 6-1 Jones. The Southwest band arrived late in the sec– ond quarter. The band took the field just long enough to brave the weather for a halftime show. It appeared that the Southwest offense al-.o came on the band bus. Trailing 12-0 at the intermission, the Bears :.cored two third quarter touchdowns to take the lead. After mounting only 37 yards of offense in the opening half, Southwest took the first drive of the second half 71 yards for the score. Kelcey Buckhalter hit Chad Lindsey on a 22- yard touchdown pass, converting fourth-and– six and placing the Bears on the board. Chris Murphy's PAT made it 12-7 with 8:09 remaining in the third. On their next possession, Vernon Chester did the honors on a 33-yard touchdown jaunt. This drive was only 47 yards in length, because Quentin Coleman blocked a punt at midfield. The conversion failed and with 22 seconds