It took a little longer than anyone planned, but late on Thursday night of last week, the Copiah-Lincoln Community College Wolves finally finished up a season opening 47-0 win over Coahoma CC in Clarksdale. 

The Wolves had jumped out to a 7-0 lead when sophomore quarterback Will Loy (Wesson High) hit receiver Jabraxton Boone (Ridgeland High) on a 14-yard touchdown pass early in the first quarter.

Lightning in the area delayed the game from resuming for nearly two hours after that, which was a pain dealt with by schools around the conference that night. It was especially troublesome for programs like Co-Lin, playing 200 miles from Wesson. 

“I didn’t lay my head down in the bed until 4:30 a.m. on Friday morning,” said longtime Co-Lin head coach Glenn Davis, remarking on a memorable start to his 21st season as head coach in Wesson.

With the commanding win over a CCC program that won just once last season, the attention has turned to preparing for the Holmes CC Bulldogs and a trip to Goodman on Thursday as the Wolves hope to move to 2-0 in Mississippi Association of Community Colleges Conference (MACCC) play.

In the Bulldogs, Co-Lin will face a team that was one of the NJCAA leaders last season in passing.

Holmes is coming off a 48-31 win last week in Summit at Southwest Mississippi CC to open the season. In other MACCC games played last week, Pearl River topped Northwest Mississippi 24-23, Jones College smacked Mississippi Delta 41-9, Mississippi Gulf Coast edged East Mississippi 34-28, Itawamba beat Hinds 10-7, and East Central defeated Northeast Mississippi 23-14.

In the win at Southwest, Holmes got 256 passing yards and four touchdowns through the air from starting quarterback John Ford (Sumrall High). Ford was also the leading rusher on the team with 37 yards on the ground.

The Holmes roster has a couple Bogue Chito alums on it in freshman running back Easton Sartin and freshman kicker/punter Andrew Merrell.

Against Southwest, Sartin got his first college carries as he ran for 13 yards on three carries. Mer-rell had a busy night, going 6-of-7 on PAT kicks and punting six times for a 40.8yard average, including a long punt that went for 58 yards.

Southwest led 7-0 and 14-7 and closed the gap in the second half to 34-31 in the fourth quarter, but Holmes got two more touchdowns late to cement the win. 

The Bulldogs from Goodman are in their third year being led by head coach Marcus Wood. They went 6-3 last season and led the country in yards per game (479.1) and passing yards per game (344.7).

“They’re going to be a lot like East Mississippi offensively, with four wide and one running back,” said Davis. Wood was previously the offensive coordinator at EMCC earlier in his career.

“There were several things that we could improve on after week one,” said Davis. “Overall, I was most pleased with how we responded after that long delay. I wasn’t sure how we’d look when we finally got back on the field, but we took care of business like we needed to.”

In the win last week at Coahoma, Co-Lin played two quarterbacks in Loy and redshirt freshman Will Prichard (West Palm Beach, Fla.). Loy finished 6-of-7 for 65 yards and Prichard went 2-of-3 for 22 yards. Prichard also threw a touchdown pass to Boone, who is a transfer from Central Arkansas. Prichard himself is a transfer from Arkansas State.

When the game resumed after the delay, the Wolves wanted to keep the ball on the ground and keep the clock running. Sophomore running back Deantre Jackson Jr. led the way on the ground with 137 yards and two scores on 11carries. A transfer from Southeastern Louisiana that played high school football in New Orleans, Jackson Jr. is nicknamed “The Jet” and he turned on the afterburners to provide the final score of the night, an 87-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

CLCC also got a rushing score each from sophomore Desmond Ray (Leflore County) and Que Tillman. The 5-foot-11, 225-pound Tillman is listed as a tight end, but will likely get plenty of short yardage carries in 2024 as he was the starting quarterback last season for West Point High, the 5A state champions that are known for their power running game.

The Co-Lin defense didn’t allow Coahoma to do much, holding the Tigers to 25 yards and four first downs. The Wolves also picked up a special teams score when Brent Barnes (Birmingham, Ala.) recovered a blocked punt for a touchdown. Barnes, a sophomore, also recovered a fumble for CLCC. Brookhaven High product Malachi Williams had one tackle for a loss for the Co-Lin defense from his linebacker position.

Holmes and Co-Lin last met to start the 2019 season in a game won 27-21 by the Wolves in Wesson. In 2018, Holmes won 29-28 when the teams met in Goodman.