Published: September 12, 2008 10:22 am            

ECCC football

HINDS 35

EAST CENTRAL 21

By Marty Stamper

Special to The Star

DECATUR — Hinds Community College quarterback Wesley Mounger scored two touchdowns in the final 11 minutes to lead the Eagles to a 35-21 win over East Central Community College Thursday night.

Mounger scored on a 15-yard run with 10:29 remaining and on a 25-yard keeper with 4:44 to play to drop the Warriors to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the MACJC South Division. Hinds improved to 2-1 and 1-0.

“We’ve just got to learn to play four quarters,” said ECCC head coach Steve Cheatham. “It’s a four-quarter game. We’ve got to learn to play hard. We’ve got to learn to take advantage of mistakes that other people make. When things happen, we’ve got to take advantage of them.

“We’ve just got to get better.”

The loss was the 14th straight for the Warriors against MACJC South Division competition.

In leading Hinds, Mounger completed 7-of-11 passes for 100 yards and gained 126 yards on 15 rushes.

“He’s pretty good,” Cheatham said. “It comes down to players making plays. We’ve got to recruit and get good players. Our players have got to make plays. Whenever we put them in position to make plays, they’ve got to make plays.”

Case in point, Mounger’s 35-yard pass to Jamal Nixon when he had all day to throw gave Hinds the ball at the ECCC 40 with a 28-21 lead and just under 9 minutes remaining. The fact that the Warrior defense was unable to bat the pass away didn’t set well with Cheatham.

“We’ve got a jump ball and if we knock it down ... all we’ve got to do is knock it down,” Cheatham said. “It’s just little things that we’re not doing.”

Mounger’s 25-yard scoring run capped the drive and gave the Eagles a 14-point cushion.

Trailing 21-7 at halftime, the Warriors fought back to tie the game at 21-21 in the first minute of the fourth quarter.

The Warriors dodged a bullet early in the third after Courtney Shelton lost a fumble at the ECCC 10. Under heavy pressure, Mounger’s toss was picked off by ECCC’s Vonzell Jackson to set up a 77-yard scoring drive.

Derrick Cade cut the Warrior deficit to 21-14 when he bulled his way across the goal line from 5 yards out.

The Warrior defense forced Hinds to go three-and-out twice with ECCC pulling even at 21-21 on a 16-yard keeper around left end by Emmanuel Taylor with 14:01 to play.

Taylor had 140 yards on 21 rushes and completed 17-of-28 passes for 188 yards to lead ECCC.

The Warriors were unable to reach midfield on their next two possessions and had just 25 seconds to work with on their last series.

Steven Knight opened the scoring with a 9-yard touchdown run with 8:48 left in the first quarter. Parker Ware added the first of five extra points to put Hinds up 7-0.

ECCC tied the game with 2:28 remaining in the opening quarter on a 5-yard toss from Taylor to Maurice Langston. Derek Crenshaw kicked the first of three PATs.

Hinds scored twice in the second quarter to take a 21-7 lead into intermission. Treyvias Alexander got the first touchdown when he hauled in a Mounger pass on the first play of the second period.

Aaron Woolfolk made it 21-7 with an 88-yard run with 3:09 to go before halftime. Woolfolk had 140 yards on nine carries.

        

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