Pearl River Community College takes a break from South Division, travels to Itawamba

Pearl River Community College must avoid mistakes to have a shot at reaching the MACJC state playoffs.

The Wildcats (2-2) travel to Itawamba at 7 p.m. Thursday at Eaton Field in Fulton. This is the Wildcats’ last Thursday game of the season.

PRCC had five turnovers, including three interceptions, in a 42-16 loss to Hinds last week. In victories over Northeast and East Central, the Wildcats didn’t make many errors.

“We can’t have those kinds of mistakes and beat good teams,” PRCC coach Ted Egger said. “We’re going to work on correcting those things. We’ve got to get ready for a long road trip against a good football team.”

Markevion Quinn will start at quarterback for the third straight game in place of the injured Justin Agner.

PRCC has developed a strong running attack with Ron Thompson and Caleb Batie, who ran for 128 yards and 94 yards, respectively last week.

Itawamba (1-3) could easily be 3-1. They dropped close contests to Gulf Coast (42-41) and Hinds (35-31). Itawamba beat then No. 5 Northwest 27-24 and lost 48-24 last week at top-ranked East Mississippi.

The Indians are led by sophomore quarterback Dan Ellington, who leads the MACJC with 371 passing yards per game. For the season, Ellington has completed 121 of 190 passes (63.7 percent) for 1,484 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions.

This is the 41st meeting between the Wildcats and the Indians. PRCC leads the series 25-14-1, but lost season’s meeting 51-34 at Dobie Holden Stadium.

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "Pearl River Community College takes a break from South Division, travels to Itawamba."