Coahoma Community College dropped its season opener Thursday night on the road at Pearl River Community College, 36-6.  The Tigers looked good for the better part of three quarters before Wildcat quarterback Kaylon Cooper found his rhythm and picked apart the Tigers using both his arm and his legs.

The Tigers got off to a promising start on their opening drive.  Facing a third and 7 from CCC's own 18-yard line, Coahoma quarterback Anthony Mitchell found Tevin Jones along the Tiger sideline for a 21-yard pick-up. On the next play, Mitchell went to his left and hit Damecio Ewing for another 16.

Aided by a 15 yard Pearl River facemask penalty, the Tigers had the ball at the Wildcat 30.

Mitchell threw a quick out to running back Christian Williams for a 5-yard pick up and capped off the drive finding Marcel Williams by himself in the end zone for the first score of the game. The Tigers would lead early 6-0 after the missed PAT but would find little else to celebrate. From that score on, Pearl River would control the game in spite of some extremely sloppy play.

The Wildcats were penalized 50 yards in the opening 10 minutes of the game and 130 yards in the first half alone. But PRCC's Cooper was able to make up for the erratic play escaping pressure from the Tigers throughout the evening with his feet and finding open receivers downfield and picking up rushing yardage in large chunks.

The Wildcat signal caller would finish 75 yards on the ground and 232 yards in the air — running for one touchdown and throwing for another. He was complimented by running back Darrell Robinson who finished the game breaking the century mark with 115 yards rushing and one touchdown.

Tiger Head Coach Karl Morgan said after the game that he hoped his team would not have to face another quarterback as athletic as the PRCC signal caller.  

"We chased him around all night," said Morgan. "But, that is about all we did…we could not contain him.  He got out of one jam after another and made the big play for his team. We have some work to do with our defensive secondary and our pass containment.  Our pass rush looked real good, but we have to bring that quarterback down."

On Coahoma's offensive side of the ball, Coach Morgan said he was real pleased with the pass protection his quarterbacks got and with his wide receivers. 

"We looked sharp on both pass and rush blocking in this game. We keep that up and work on our defensive secondary and stopping  runners after they pass the line of scrimmage, we're going to have a pretty good season.  Big plays from Pearl River hurt us and hurt us in this first game."

Christian Williams led the Tigers ground attack picking up 49 yards on 14 carries, while Mitchell ended the game with 82 yards through the air and one TD while connecting on 8-of-17 passes. Tigers' wide receiver Damecio Ewing finished the game with 105 all-purpose yards (receiving 24 and kick returns 80).

The Tigers offense picked up 199 yards of total, while its defense gave up a total of 513 yards of offense to Pearl River (239 rushing and 274 passing).

The Tigers will be at home tomorrow night for a game against East Central Community College.  The Warriors dropped their opener 21-12 to Mississippi Delta.

The Tigers will be opening up their home season and showing off their brand new playing surface, come out and be a part of Tiger Nation — game begins at 7 p.m.

For more photos from Thursday's game CLICK HERE!