1999

WEEKOF __ ~~-~~~D~--~~SL_

George Clark/The Mer dia BREAKING FREE - East Mississippi Community College's Sammy Brooks breaks through the East Central Co College defensive front last Thursday night. Th1s Thursday night, EMCC plays host to Southwest Community College ECCC at home Thursday agai By Rocky Higginbotham The Meridian Star DECATUR- Terry Underwood has said it before and he'll say it again: "In this league, you never have time to celebrate. You've gotta be ready to play each and every week." "We can't rest on what we've done," Underwood said. "I feel great about these two wins, and I think that we're getting better every week. But we can't afford to be satis– fied." Especially not with their division opener. With unbeatens Gulf Coast, Hinds and Jones and ranked Southwest all looming down the road, it's vital for the Warriors to get off to a good start this week. Copiah-Lincoln comes into the matcbup with a 1-2 ----–

Underwood is talking about the rough-and-tough Mississippi junior college league, where his East Central Community College Warriors are 2-1 this season. As sound as those words are, however, it's bard for the Warriors not to feel just a little giddy these days. After opening the season with an embarrassing 53-8 loss to then-No. 1 ranked Northwest, East Central has rebounded with back-to-hack road wins over Itawamba and East Mississippi. Thursday night in Decatur, the Warriors will try to .. ~ J1

record after getting whipped 44-8 by Northwest a week ago. The Wolves also lost to Holmes in a 7-3 heartbreak- er earlier this year, and they own a 17-0 shutout win over Northeast. Co-Lin's offense is rated as the state's fifth best, aver– aging 330.3 yards per game. And while East Central's defense is the state's third worst, that might be a little deceiving. Aft<>r ~nrrPncierine- 705 yards in its season-opet:ter,