The Hinds Eagles spoiled homecoming for the Southwest Mississippi Community College Bears as the visitors left Summit with a 40-20 South Division win.
The loss dropped the Bears to 2-4 overall, 1-2 in the MACJC’s South Division. Hinds moved to 4-2 and 2-2.
Hinds drew first blood and took a 17-0 lead in the first quarter. Joseph Houston kicked a 26-yard field goal with 13:28 showing on the clock and added extra points following touchdown runs by Darryan Ragsdale and James Summers.
A 2-yard touchdown run by Jamal Hall closed out a seven-play, 79-yard drive and put the Bears on the board with 4:37 left in the opening stanza. Michal McDaniel booted the PAT to make the score 17-7.
Hinds scored the only points of the second quarter on a 7-yard run by Summers. Houston kicked the extra point to give the Eagles a 24-7 advantage at halftime.
Hinds quickly went up 37-7 in the in the third quarter. Gregory Foster reached paydirt from the 1 with 12:44 on the clock, but the PAT was blocked.
Attempting an onside kick, the Eagles recovered at the SMCC 40. Six plays later, Summers scored his third touchdown on a 1-yard dash into the end zone. Houston added the PAT.
The Bears were forced to punt on their next possession but quickly regained the ball as Jordan Grayson recovered a fumble by returner LaChristopher Lee at the Hinds 29. Seven plays later, Ballard scored for the second time on a 1-yard run with 7:28 on the clock. McDaniel’s extra point made it 37-14 with one quarter remaining.
Hinds went up 40-14 with 6:29 in the game when. Houston notched his second 26-yard field goal .
The Bears scored the final points on their next possession. Ballard completed an 8-yard touchdown pass to Bodarius Johnson to cap an 8-play, 61-yard drive. The PAT failed.
“We’ve played good defense all year, to be honest with you,” said Southwest head coach Tucker Peavey. “We don’t tackle like we’d like to; we give up some big plays, but we get put in bad positions a lot of times because we’re so bad on offense with turnovers and handling the ball. At the end of the day, we shoot ourselves in the foot and just hand the other teams the ball too much.”
The game seemed to closer than the final score.
“We were moving the ball on offense (early) and every time we would have a good play, we’d follow it up with a bad one,” Peavey said. “We’re not disciplined enough or we don’t concentrate enough to be able to put multiple positive plays together.”
SMCC visits Gulf Coast on Thursday.
hey travel to Perkinston to face Mississippi Gulf Coast. Kickoff is set for 7:00.
and when we do we’re okay. But, it’s just too often that we’re not doing that. Until we can do that, we’re not going to be able to score a lot of points on offense and we’re going to continue to put our defense in a bad position.”
Ballard led the Southwest offense, completing 17 of 32 passes for 151 yards. He tossed one touchdown pass and was intercepted once. Jonathan McNair caught five passes for 57 yards while Johnson had three catches for 28 yards and a touchdown. Kelvin Williams had three receptions for 17 yards. On the ground, Chris Jones carried the ball 12 times for 65 yards. Ballard had 39 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. Hall also ran for a score.
Troy Egana and Steven Joiner both registered eight tackles for the Bears’ defense. Guy Stallworth had seven stops while Lonnie Bonner, Jr., and C. J. O’Quin both had six. Egana and Grayson recovered Hinds fumbles while Joiner and Stallworth both had a pass intercept interception.
The Bears had 21 first downs in the game. They were penalized five times for 37 yards and lost all three fumbles. Taylor Smith punted the ball eight times for an average of 36 yards.
Summers topped the Hinds offense with 226 total yards. He completed seven of 17 passes for 124 yards while carrying the ball15 times for 102 yards and three touchdowns.
The Eagles recorded 25 first downs in the game. They were whistled for seven penalties for a total of 55 yards and lost both fumbles. Pate DeMuth punted five times for a 35.6 yard average.
The Bears return to the gridiron on October 10 when they travel to Perkinston to face Mississippi Gulf Coast. Kickoff is set for 7:00.
