BLUE MOUNTAIN – The Northwest Mississippi Community College men's soccer team (4-5-2) picked up a much-needed win in convincing fashion against the Blue Mountain Christian University reserve team on Tuesday afternoon, taking down the Toppers 4-0, ending a three-match skid in the process.
The Rangers picked up the opening goal in the 21st minute when a long ball over the top from Carter Burton found Tyler Starnes and the sophomore finished for the lone goal of the first half, putting NWCC up 1-0 at the break.
Northwest found a pair of goals early in the second half, both coming from the same duo.
A through ball from Francisco Ambrioso split the defense on its way to Tendai Machingura in the 53rd minute as the international pair combined to extend the lead to 2-0. Five minutes later they linked up again when Machingura picked up his second goal to make it 3-0.
It was the first two goal game of the Zimbabwean's career and it gave Ambrioso his first assists of the 2025 campaign, matching the sophomore's season total from last year.
The Rangers found one more goal to hammer the win home in the 80th minute when Machingura fed Starnes for his second goal of the game on a tap in after beating the keeper to bring it to a 4-0 lead and help the Rangers to their second road win of the season.
In net, Northwest saw a strong performance from Jacob Little who picked up his second clean sheet of the year with four saves in the match. It was Little's first shutout since a 0-0 draw against Hendrix College on August 29th. It now gives him four clean sheets on the year.
"The guys took advantage of a chance to work on some things and still kept the standard high," Head Coach Michael Sullivan said. "I'm excited to see how the hard work transfers to conference play!"
Northwest will return to MACCC action when they host #11 Pearl River Community College (5-3-1, 3-0-1) at 6:00 pm on Friday night at the Ranger Soccer Complex. The match will be streamed on nwccrangers.com/watch. It will start 20 minutes after the women's game to be played ahead of it.
For more information on NWCC men's soccer, visit nwccrangers.com or follow along on Ranger social media accounts.
