SCOOBA — East Mississippi Community College quarterback Connor Neville wants to talk about the third quarter.
Not the first quarter, when he threw three touchdown passes in the game’s first five minutes and exited not long afterward with a leg injury. Not the second, when freshman Jamari Jones threw his first college touchdown pass in a 17-point quarter.
No, the third, when Neville was hobbling around the sideline on crutches with his lower left leg in a boot as EMCC took a victory lap with a running clock.
“We definitely should have scored in the third quarter,” Neville said. “I hold everyone to high expectations, so we gotta punch it in at least once in the third quarter.”
That scoreless quarter was pretty much the only thing the Lions (2-1) had to be concerned about in a 48-3 rout of Itawamba Community College (0-3).
Neville completed 12 of his 14 passes, including three touchdowns of at least 30 yards to three different receivers. Austin Morphis took a screen pass 58 yards to the house on the Lions’ second play from scrimmage and EMCC was off to the races from there.
Pervis Frazier and Rashad Eades each caught deep passes from Neville, the sophomore transfer from Washington State, within five minutes of the start of the game, and that pretty much put Itawamba away.
“Early on, our offense did a really good job of executing,” EMCC head coach Buddy Stephens said. “I think that allowed our defense to really pin their ears back and play free.”
Neville had his second straight stellar game after an up-and-down performance against Hinds in the season opener, throwing for three scores without committing a turnover.
“You gotta remember, he was three years away from playing in a regular game,” Stephens said. “You can shoot baskets out in the backyard, but until you play in a basketball game, it ain’t the same. It’s the same with him. I thought he did well, reacted well, played with a tremendous amount of confidence, and that’s what we’re gonna need going forward.”
As good as Neville’s performance was, it was also short-lived.
He took a handoff to the left side late in the first quarter, thinking he saw nothing but grass in front of him, but he forgot the play design left two Itawamba defenders uncalled for. One of them charged him.
“I tried to give him a stiff-arm, but obviously I didn’t give him enough, because he went in and hit my knee,” Neville said.
The injury isn’t serious, Stephens said, and he kept Neville out mostly as a precaution — Neville should be ready for next week.
“They just wanted me to take it easy tonight and not put me in danger,” Neville said.
Command of the Lions’ offense fell to the freshman Jones, who mostly impressed in his first extended action at the helm — once the anxiety wore off by the second snap he took.
“He’s gonna be the guy that inherits the keys to the car one day, anyway,” Stephens said.
Just take the play where Jones evaded pressure, rolled out to his right and fired a perfect strike downfield to Jason Brownlee for a 66-yard touchdown pass — Jones’ first touchdown of his collegiate career.
“I’ve been waiting on my first touchdown pass,” Jones said. “When I got it off, I just knew he’d score.”
The touchdown put EMCC up 38-3, as Zias Perryman had rushed for a 17-yard touchdown earlier in the quarter. So Josh Smith’s 24-yard field goal with a minute and 37 seconds left in the half gave EMCC a 38-point lead, invoking the mercy rule — the two teams played with a running clock for the entire second half.
For Neville, it was shades of high school, where a running clock was a common occurrence.
“We used to get up on teams,” Neville said.
It was hardly different Thursday at a higher level of competition, as Itawamba hardly ever sustained a drive or posed an offensive threat.
A 26-yard field goal from Skyler Grissom early in the second quarter gave the Indians their only points of the game, and EMCC’s defense clamped down further from there.
But even in the blowout, Stephens told his team there are still things to fix ahead of next week’s game at Mississippi Delta (0-3).
Neville knows it, too, and he just hopes he’s back on the field by then.
“I’m ready for every game, but I’m ready to play next week,” Neville said. “I want to play really bad.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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