CLARKSDALE — East Central Community College's Marquis Hedge rushed for 85 yards and four touchdowns to lead his team to a 35-14 win over Coahoma Community College on the CCC campus Thursday night. The win evened the Warriors mark at 1-1 while Coahoma dropped to 0-2.

 "We can pass, we can catch, we can block," said Tiger head coach Karl Morgan, "but let a runner get past our defensive line and there's nobody there to stop him."

Lamarcus Franks led East Centrals rushers with 111 yards on 17 carries as the visitors rushed for 277 yards on 45 carries and added another 107 through the air.

The Tigers rushed for just 31 yards on 27 carries.

But, they were not without their bright spots. Despite losing two games, quarterback Anthony Mitchell and his receivers are proving to be the strength of the Tigers team.  Mitchell spread his passing around to five receivers tossing for 230 yards while completing 18 of 24 passes.

The highlight came with 5:38 left in the game when Mitchell hit Marcel Williams on the fly for 47 yards with Williams carrying it in for a 61-yard scoring play — Cody Spears PAT was good.

East Central got on the board early in the second quarter.  The Tigers had the ball at their own 28 facing a third and 17 when Mitchell bobbled the snap and the Warrior's Hunter Soileau recovered at the Tiger 11.  Three plays later Ethan Hamilton found Hedge in the corner of the end zone on a 6-yard pass for the TD eight seconds into the second quarter.

Both teams played a defensive game for the remainder of the period.  The Tigers defensive line put up a wall as they stopped the Warriors at the CCC 17 where Zarrat Sims recovered a Hedge fumble. The Warriors backed Coahoma up to the Tigers 15, but a 50-yard punt from Spears took CCC out of the hole.

East Central closed out the first half when QB Hamilton hit Rashad Moore for 41 yards to the Tiger 20.  Four carries later by Hedge ended the drive with a 5-yard run around end.

East Central took the second half kick-off from its own 36 and drove the field on 11 plays before Hedge scored again on a 2-yard dive. The final scoring play for ECCC came with 4:38 left in the game on a 48-yard run from backup running back SaVon Robinson into the Coahoma secondary with 4:38 left in the contest.

The Tigers took the ensuing kick-off from their own 27.  On the arm of Mitchell, Coahoma moved the ball to the Warrior's 5-yard line on five passing plays. Freshman QB Mickey Ridley then entered the game in the Wildcat package and took the ball into the end zone from five yards out.

Defensively for Coahoma, 16 players were in on tackles led by Quartez Roby who was in on a total of nine tackles (five solo). D'Angelo Tucker (four solo) and Zarrat Sims (three solo) each had seven total tackles.

Wide receiver and special teams athlete Damecio Ewing finished the game with 100 all-purpose yards.

Coahoma has a huge test coming up next week at home against the number one ranked team in the nation and defending national champions, East Mississippi Community College.  In their second contest last week, the Lions thrashed the third ranked team Copiah-Lincoln 46-10.  

The game is scheduled to kickoff at 7 p.m. in Clarksdale at CCC's James E. Miller Stadium.

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