GOODMAN – It was a romp on the road on Thursday afternoon for the #4 Northwest Mississippi Community College football team (7-1, 4-1) as they took care of business against Holmes Community College (3-5, 3-2), spoiling their homecoming with a 45-10 running clock win to set up a pivotal game next week to close out the regular season at home with a chance to clinch a postseason berth in the MACCC playoffs.
"This is what you get when the Northwest Rangers click," sophomore running back Julius Pope said. "We haven't had a game when special teams, offense, and defense click, but today the offense had a game, defense had a game, and special teams had a game. That's Northwest football."
The Rangers defense dominated early in the game and got things off to a near perfect start, forcing a three-and-out on the opening drive by Holmes, and after Northwest was forced to punt themselves, they forced a fumble on the return after BJ Mix punched out the ball and Nate Walker recovered in the endzone to open the scoring and make it 7-0 Northwest with 11:17 left in the first quarter.
"We've been rallying to be ball more," Rase Jones said about a defense that had one of its best days forcing turnovers all season and has led the way early in the last two wins. "That's been a big theme for Coach (Paige) Anders and we've been working on it in practice, and it showed on the field."
After forcing another punt on the Bulldogs next possession, Northwest's offense got into their own rhythm on their drive going 89 yards in just under four minutes with the drive being capped off by a 27-yard pass from Neko Fann to Reed Jesiolowski to double the lead to 14-0 with 5:30 remaining.
It was the third touchdown pass to Jesiolowski this season and second longest reception of the season for the sophomore from Brandon, Mississippi.
It was the start to several wide-open passes in the game that led to scores and Head Coach Benjy Parker said both sides of the connections found ways to do their jobs right.
"We got some separation and Neko found them for the scores. I don't know if it was a busted coverage or if we just created that much separation, either way it was a great job throwing the ball by Neko and our wideouts."
Punts ruled the rest of the first quarter with both defenses settling in as Holmes was unable to get their passing game going and a pair of penalties hurt the Rangers on their next possession to push a drive back to their own nine-yard line before they had to punt.
The defense for NWCC rose again on the next possession after the punt from Wolfe set up Holmes near midfield. Myles Miller sacked quarterback Chase Richardson on second and 20, forcing a fumble at the same time when he punched the ball away from the scrambling quarterback and Christ Thomas recovered it in plus territory at the Bulldogs 46-yard line.
After two plays, Northwest swapped sides of the field and opened the second quarter with a 30-yard touchdown pass from Fann to Keon Hutchins to shock the Holmes crowd and a Hayden Wolfe PAT made the score 21-0 with 14:55 to go.
It only took two more plays after the ensuing kickoff for the Rangers defense to strike again.
A Cole McCarty pass was intercepted at the Northwest 27-yard line by Damari Burton and after a trio of Jarvis Durr runs that got the Bulldogs defense looking for the ball to go on the ground again, Fann hooked up with his favorite target of the year on a 38-yard post route that Hutchins took to the house for his second score of the game to push the Ranger lead to 28-9 with 11:44 remaining in the first half.
Holmes took over and finally pieced a drive together, but it didn't bring any results on the scoreboard. Nine plays took the Bulldogs across midfield but a sack by Jones and a holding penalty brought up a third and 32 that stalled the drive and forced a punt with just over seven minutes to go in the half.
Northwest went back to the ground game on their next possession after being pinned back at their own 10-yard line on the punt, and Pope took the ball 31 yards on the opening play of the drive to flip the field and set up a 13-play drive that took the clock under the two-minute timeout.
The Bulldogs stiffened their defense at the right time to hold Northwest out of the endzone, but Wolfe brought some points out of the drive none-the-less with a 36-yard field goal that capped the Rangers portion of the half with 31 unanswered points.
That left a bit too much time on the clock for Holmes to respond. After the kickoff set them up at the 20 yard line, the Bulldogs saw McCarty find enough of a groove with his receiving corps to march the ball to the Northwest 23-yard line where Dan Lindsay was set up with a season long 40-yard field goal attempt that he converted with room to spare to give Holmes something to be happy about going into the locker room, denying the shutout to the Rangers and making it 31-3.
That positivity didn't last long into the second half. Northwest opened with possession and proceeded to march the ball down the field with a pair of Fann passes to M.J. Johnson bringing the ball to the 15-yard line where Pope finished it off on a brilliant run through traffic, breaking several tackles on the way to open field and his lone touchdown of the game to make it 38-3 with 11:36 left in the third.
The running game was huge for Northwest with Pope, Durr and Ja Keyes combining for over 140 total yards and a large portion of that came in the second half.
"We went into halftime and Coach Hill said the running backs and offensive line had to step up," said Pope who led the attack with 75 yards and a touchdown. "I took it personally, so I stepped up."
Another three and out was forced by the Ranger defense who picked up right where they left off, and then brilliance hit when Quincey Phillips Jr. returned the ensuing punt 63 yards for the first punt return for a touchdown by a Ranger since D.T. Sheffield did the same feat against Holmes almost three years to the day on October 20, 2022.
"We haven't seen it very much this year but it's always good when the ball bounces in your favor and you can get a score on special teams, that's huge," Parker said of the boost it gave the team to start the running clock.
It was the third time this season the clock has started running for the Rangers and the second time in as many games and the keys were handed off to the running backs for the remainder of the game as they worked to salt the game away. Northwest got the ball into the redzone on both of their next possessions but went for it on fourth down runs both times and Holmes earned stops on each try.
The Bulldogs got the ball with 6:20 left in the game on their final chance to move the ball down the field and on the last official play from scrimmage in the game, drove the length of the field and McCarty ran the ball in on a broken play to give them their first touchdown of the contest and close the game with the final score of 45-10.
Fann led the Northwest passing attack on another efficient performance, going 14-19 for 239 yards and three scores.
His top target was Hutchins who came four yards away from his second 100-yard game of the year with 96 to go with his two scores. Britten Traylor also pulled in four passes for 43 yards and Pope, Johnson, and Jesiolowski had two receptions each.
Pope's two catches netted him 19 yards including one for a big first down late and got him up to 94 total yards in the game. It's another example of the Ranger backs being able to catch the ball out of the backfield which Pope said is something they take pride in.
"Coach Hill makes sure when we are running our routes, we run them like we are receivers, and he gets on us when we don't. As a running back group, we can do it all as a room."
The Rangers special teams had a fantastic day, recording a pair of touchdowns and Wolfe was once again perfect in the kicking game going six for six on extra points along with his 36-yard field goal.
"W we preach every week about winning the kicking game because that's a third of it," Parker said. "We always say if we can win that we have a chance because then we just have to win one of the other two."
The defense was led by Caleb Tillman who recorded eight tackles in the game including six solo tackles. The team also recorded a season high five sacks from five different defenders and Thomas added another 22-yard tackle for a loss after a deflected pass set him up to make a tackle in the backfield.
The three turnovers forced by Northwest was also a season high and the offense had a clean day with no turnovers on their side of the ball.
"We have been working hard and doing everything the coaches say to us," said Jones, who had a sack for a 12-yard loss in the game and is one of the leading tacklers this season for the Rangers. "This defense is a good group, and we really buy in to what the coaches are telling us and we love each other. We're having fun playing and it's working."
Northwest will head home for a critical game on Thursday night when they host the Itawamba Community College Indians (5-3, 4-1) in a game that will determine a postseason spot with the winner in and the loser out as both teams enter with a record of 4-1 in conference play and in a three way tie with East Mississippi Community College also in the same mix.
"It's a super important game," Jones said. "We are looking at it as there is no option for us but to win."
"We need to take the same mentality from today into that game," Pope said. "Before the game coach said they are dangerous, but they aren't a team we can't put in our hand and drag them, so I feel like we just need to keep that mentality. Itawamba is good and they are dangerous, but there isn't a team we can't keep up with."
Kickoff of the game is scheduled for 7:00 pm from Bobby Franklin Field with Matt Infield and Russell Copeland on the call with pregame scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm on Ranger TV.
More information on the Rangers football team can be found at nwccrangers.com or by following along on Ranger social media accounts.
