CLARKSDALE- Resurrection. The term presently holds tremendous meaning to the Coahoma Community College Football program. Coahoma's football team put in hard work throughout the spring and summer months preparing for the 2019 season. Head Coach Steven Miller approved of the effort he was seeing from his players. He believed his team was capable of doing something special. That particular awe-inspiring moment transpired on Thursday night when the Tigers pulled off an 18-10 upset victory over Jones College, a team ranked fourth in the NJCAA.
Coahoma glowed up the scoreboard first with a 35-yard touchdown pass from Tajh Tolbert to Deldrionn Amos to set the Tigers at a 6-0 lead. The Tigers' defense got a big stop early by blocking a 42-yard field goal attempt by Cristofer Thompson.
Special Teams played a significant factor when Jones's Nataurean Watts blocked a punt in the end zone and Rakeim Ashford made a recovery for a touchdown. The Bobcats took a 7-6 lead. Coahoma's defense came up big before the end of the first half by blocking a 47-yard field goal attempt by Thompson.
Coahoma took charge by starting the second half with a 77-yard touchdown pass from Tolbert to Amos for a 12-7 lead.
The Tigers' defense line made a big statement when Norde White's big hit forced a fumble on Kalyn Grandberry at Jones's three-yard line. Kyle Jones made the fumble recovery at Jones's two-yard line.
Dewayne Betts scored a two-yard touchdown, extending the lead to 18-7.
Jones came back with 29-yard field goal by Thompson, which cut the lead to 18-10 with 10:32 remaining.
Coahoma's defense came up with some big stops late in the game. Bo Curtis sacked Fred Barnum on fourth down and eight at Coahoma's 34-yard line with 4:09 remaining.
The Bobcats had one more chance on 4th down and one at the Tigers' 23-yard line with 58 seconds remaining. An attempted pass from Ladamian Webb to Malik Shelley was dropped to grant Coahoma the victory.
Jones College had a total of 134 yards from its offense, including 59 rushing yards and 75 passing yards. Webb led the Bobcats with 21 carries for 79 yards. Barnum was 7 of 20 passes for 48 yards. Quaterius Hawkins was 5-9 for 27 yards.
Coahoma had a total of 289 yards from its offense, 76 rushing yards and 213 passing yards. Tolbert led the Tigers with nine of 24 passes for 213 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. Amos captured two catches for 112 yards and two touchdowns. Betts had six carries for 30 yards and a touchdown. Tyler Grim tallied ten carries for 42 yards.
CCC Athletic Director Reggy Hankerson was very excited and honored to witness the most significant victory in CCC history.
"I would like to thank and publicly congratulate Coach Steven Miller and his staff. I have personally witnessed them put in the hard work and the seemly impossible task to work," said Hankerson. "The CCC Football program has been through a long ongoing process since Coach Miller's arrival. On last night, the Tigers displayed the hard work, effort and belief. We cannot only compete and beat one of the nation's elite community college programs but we have displayed that Coahoma Community College can exist among them as well. Once again, congratulations to Coach Miller and his staff."
Coach Miller was relieved and pumped that his team has made an enormous step forward to start the 2019 season.
"Jones is a great team, but my team was ready to play," said Miller. "This is a totally different team with a different character that believes in what we do as a team. Tiger Nation was shocked to see what was going on. They didn't realize that we were in a game with the No. 4 team in the nation and beat them."
Coahoma goes to 1-0 on the season. They will have a chance to continue their winning ways against No. 12 Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College on Thursday, September 5, 2019. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Perkinston, Mississippi. The game will broadcast live at www.coahomasports.com/watch and on the College's radio station WCQC 91.3 FM.
By: Coahoma CC Athletics