WESSON – In their long-awaited season-opener Thursday night at H.L. Stone Stadium, the 12th-ranked Northwest Rangers used a punishing ground attack and forced five Copiah-Lincoln turnovers to run away with a 42-21 victory. 

Northwest (1-0) outgained Co-Lin 453-240 and racked up 284 yards rushing on 61 carries. All four running backs touched the ball 10 times or more, led by freshman Damian Baker with 21 carries for 112 yards and a TD and fellow frosh Percy O'Bannon with 14 carries for 76 yards and a score.

Scoreless after the first quarter, Northwest exploded for a 28-point second quarter to take a four touchdown advantage at the half.

With 14:42 left in the second, a muffed punt by Greg Sims resulted in the Rangers' first score of the year when freshman fullback Taylor Rotenberry fell on the ball in the endzone for the touchdown.

Northwest stuck to the ground game to score its ensuing three touchdowns, with Baker scoring on a 1-yard run, Percy O'Bannon scoring from 3-yards out and Mont Dean crashing in from 2-yards away.

Co-Lin (1-1) ate up nearly 7 minutes of clock on its opening drive of the second half, but came away with no points when Nolan Long's 45-yard field goal try went wide right.

The Rangers immediately capitalized and extended their lead six plays later when Domonique Harris hit a streaking Josh Hamilton up the seam for a 26-yard touchdown connection. 

Teshadi Talton's 2-yard score with 2 seconds left in the third made it 42-0 in favor of the Rangers, but left just enough clock for Co-Lin to score its first touchdown of the night when Chandler Rogers connected with Darren Anderson from 75-yards out on the first play of the ensuing drive.

Co-Lin would add two more late scores to trim the final margin in half, using touchdown tosses of 14 yards and 6 yards from Rogers who closed the night 18-of-40 with 205 yards passing, four interceptions and three touchdowns. Harris finished 8-of-22 with 169 yards passing.

Defensively, Northwest owned the turnover battle by picking off four passes and forcing one fumble, led by sophomores Dominique Price and Aaron Thompson who each had two interceptions.

Northwest improved to 23-13-1 all-time vs. Co-Lin and has now won 14 of the last 18 meetings.

The Rangers host Coahoma (0-2) on Thursday, Sept. 13 in their home-opener at 6:30 p.m.