Box Score SENATOBIA – The #4 Northwest Mississippi Community College football team (8-1, 6-1) wrapped up the regular season at home with 24-7 a come from behind win over Itawamba Community College (5-4, 4-3) to clinch a share of the 2025 MACCC regular season title and punch a ticket to the Region 23 playoffs starting next week.
"That's the expectation here," Defensive Coordinator Paige Anders said. "We got season one accomplished and got a share of the north half and the new season starts now. The mission won't change, and we are looking forward to the process this week of getting better and taking it one rep at a time."
Itawamba, who would have earned their own trip into the postseason with a win, didn't make it easy, holding the Rangers to three-and-outs on their two of their first three drives of the game.
On the offensive side, the Indians found traction first with their third drive of the game, opening with the ball on their own 14-yard line before driving the ball for the next 7:37 on 14 plays before an 11-yard pass from Deljay Bailey to Tavaris Coles opened the second quarter with the visitors on top 7-0 with 12:43 remaining in the game.
Those would be the first and only points ICC would score in the game, and defensive lineman T.J. Spann said they took it personally.
"The last few weeks, Coach Anders has been preaching the next rep. It doesn't matter what happened that play, but to get up, keep going, keep fighting, and win the next rep. When they scored those seven points, all eleven said they weren't going to score again, and that's what we did."
Northwest finally got their own offense going three minutes later when they went to the air and Neko Fann was able to find the trio of Keon Hutchins, M.J. Johnson, and Reed Jesiolowski on passes on the way to a 56-yard drive to tie the game at seven, capped off with a four-yard completion to Jesiolowksi with 5:53 left.
"We just ran some stuff that we had been practicing all week that we knew we were going to hit them on, and we hit them on it," Jesiolowski said. "We ran a tight end screen and they brought a few guys off the edge, and I slipped out and scored."
After getting the ball back, Itawamba took up the rest of the half on a drive of their own that stalled out at the 21-yard line, but they didn't make it work out with a 39-yard field goal bouncing off of the right up-right, keeping the game level going into the locker rooms.
The Ranger defense forced a three and out to open the third quarter and the offense immediately went to work. Fann found Jesiolowski for the longest play of the game, a 56-yard catch and run to the Indian's 11-yard line that paid off when Hayden Wolfe booted a 21-yard field goal to give the Rangers their first lead of the game.
Another three-and-out kept the ball in the hands of Northwest and this time it was the rushing game that took over for the home team, netting them four carries for 28 yards and opening the passing game for a 16-yard screen pass to Julius Pope for their second touchdown of the game to push the lead to double figures at 17-7 with 3:17 remaining.
Special teams played another huge role in start of the next drive as a muffed kick return out of bounds set the Indians up inside of their own two-yard line, and after barely avoiding a safety, ICC was able to gain some traction but couldn't get out of their won 20-yard line before being forced into a punt.
That allowed the Rangers to pick up at the Itawamba 44-yard line on their next possession, and it only took four played before Pope again was in the endzone, scurrying through traffic to take it 15-yards into the endzone for a game sealing touchdown with 12:34 to go, putting Northwest up 24-7.
Itawamba did get one more opportunity to drive down the field, but their 13-play drive that started at the 20-yard line ended up fizzling out into a punt after they stalled at 4th and 25 thanks to a pair of sacks by the Rangers that finished off the chances for the Indians rally, and Northwest was able to kneel out the rest of the game on the way to an 8-1 finish to the regular season.
"It's great," Jesiolowski said of clinching the postseason spot at home. "We pretty much control our own destiny. As long as we win and keep winning each game, it's all we can do. That will take us a long way."
After only netting 65 total yards of offense in the first half, the Rangers were able to pick up 230 by games end including 169 through the air on 12-20 passing from Fann who also added 18 yards on the ground.
His favorite target was Jesiolowski who had three receptions for a season high 79 yards and a score. Hutchins had two receptions for 31 yards and Johnson also picked up a pair of catches for 22.
Pope had the only other receiving touchdown for Northwest with 30 yards to go with it in the air and finished with a team high two scores with 49 total yards thanks to seven carries for 19 yards. Jarvis Durr added 24 yards on nine carries on a night when the Rangers struggled to get things going with only 61 cumulative yards on the ground.
Defensively, Northwest was on the top of their game, limiting Itawamba to just 51 total yards in the second half, and picking up nine sacks in the game and 15 tackles for a loss for a total of 122 yards through four quarters.
The nine sacks is a season high and Spann said it was everyone feeding on each other regardless of position.
"It feels good as a defensive line to do our job and then our linebackers, our brothers, they feed off that energy and it's contagious. Once we start doing it, the linebackers start doing it and now the corners and safety's wanting to get in on it," the sophomore from Clinton said.
Jerry Wall III had a strong game which included 2.5 sacks for 22 yards on the way to total five tackles. Myles Miller also had 2.5 sacks for 13 yards and Charles Woodard led the team in tackles with seven, including 1.5 sacks. Chris Thomas also recorded a sack to go with a team high 3.5 tackles for a loss and forced a fumble, recovering it as well for the lone turnover of the game.
Northwest clinched the second seed in the Region 23 postseason with the win after East Mississippi Community College held of Holmes Community College in a 50-39 thriller of their own to take the top seed from the North Division.
In the south, Copiah-Lincoln Community College had already locked up their position in the top two and earned the top seed thanks to Mississippi Gulf Coast taking down Hinds Community College 31-10 in their 'win and in' game to close the season.
Northwest will travel to CoLin next week on Saturday for the opening round with game time to be determined and Spann said if they keep bringing the right mentality, they feel they can win anywhere.
"We need to know who we are and do our job. Pursue, tackle, strip. Every day run to the ball, that's what we do and that's what we take pride in. Keep God first and we bust our tail every day."
You can keep up with the Northwest schedule and news by visiting nwccrangers.com or by following Ranger social media accounts.
