Indians fall to No. 14 Pearl River in home opener

The Pearl River Community College Wildcats brought their No. 14 national ranking and high-powered offense to Fulton and left with a 34-8 win in the Indians' 2011 home opener on Thursday. 

"Pearl River is an outstanding football team," said ICC head coach Jon Williams. "They executed extremely well on both sides of the football and proved why they are one of the best teams in the nation."

Pearl River (1-1, 0-0 MACJC South) took a 14-0 lead behind a pair of Melvin German rushing touchdowns before Keon McGaughy scored on a 20-yard run, but a missed extra point left ICC (0-2, 0-0 MACJC North) trialing 14-6 with 8:06 left until halftime. 

Pearl River answered with an 8-yard run by Markeyus Johnson, but the Indians blocked the extra point attempt allowing Will Kirby to scoop up the ball and sprint 80-yards for the two-point conversion to make it a 20-8 contest at the break.

German scored his third rushing touchdown of the contest before finding Seth Roberts for a scoring toss in the final seconds of the third quarter as the Wildcats pulled away for the 34-8 victory.

"Despite the loss, we saw some improvements from last week," Williams said. "Our goal as a team right now is to continue to improve from one week to the next and hopefully be playing our best football when division play rolls around."

The Wildcats finished with 412 yards of total offense (170 rushing; 242 passing) while the Indians totaled 246 total yards (113 rushing; 133 passing).

McGaughy finished with 49 yards on 9 carries while Bennie Abram L.E.G.A.C.Y award recipient completed 4-of-11 passing for 76 yards and one interception with Demarius Howard hauling in three catches for 50 yards. 

ICC will look to pass its final non-division test on Thursday when they host the East Central Community College Warriors.

Last season, the Indians picked up their first win of the season on the road 21-14 over the Warriors.

"This game was a turning-point game for us last season," Williams said of the Thursday night contest. "Hopefully we will be able to build on the things we have learned from the last two games and get the ship pointed in the right direction this season."

Last week, the Warriors (0-2, 0-0 MACJC South) dropped a 42-19 decision to the No. 6 Northwest Rangers.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. with the radio broadcast starting twenty minutes before kickoff on WAFM 95.7 FM or online at www.fm95radio.com.