DECATUR – It took some time to break through, but the #1 Northwest Mississippi Community College women's soccer team (11-0, 6-0) kept their unblemished season alive with a 6-0 win over East Central Community College (2-8-1, 0-6) on Tuesday night, extending their winning streak to 33 matches over the past two seasons.
The Rangers didn't score their first goal of the match until the 40th minute, but it wasn't for a lack of shot attempts as they put up 24 first half shots.
It was Mary Logan Clark who broke through in the 40th with a strike from 10 yards out after the ball was shuffled to her through traffic by Caroline Perkins to put the Rangers up 1-0.
Clark added a second goal just before halftime when she found herself in a one-on-one with the goalie after a beautiful feed from Savannah Blackford left the Madison native in the clear to finish for her second goal of the game.
Northwest continued to add to their tally early in the second half when Lara Stevens picked up her first goal of the match on a cross from McKenzi Rankins in the first minute of the second half to make it 3-0.
The pressure from the Rangers led to another scoring chance in the 48th minute when a foul inside of the 18-yard box led to a penalty which Stevens finished off for her second goal of the match to make it 4-0.
More shots came from the Northwest attack as the match continued but the ECCC defense held their line for the most part and their goalie put on a strong display in net making big saves to keep the score from ballooning too much but the Rangers did break through again in the 79th minute when Allie Kimbrell lined up a shot from 15 yards out to push the score to 5-0.
One more goal would come but not from a Ranger. A cross into the 6-yard box deflected off a Warrior and into their own net to make the final score 6-0 for Northwest.
The Rangers out shot the Warriors 39-1 in the match, showing off just how dominant their ball control was throughout, and the lone shot by the Warriors was not on goal.
Northwest did see one yellow card handed out to Kimbrell in the 80th minute but overall played a clean match, only committing seven fouls and only picking up one offside call.
Darby Woolever got her first career start in net and the Senatobia native also picked up her first career clean sheet to go with it, playing all 90 minutes.
Northwest will return home to face #9 Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College (7-2, 5-1) on Friday afternoon beginning at 4:00 pm. The next three matches for the Rangers all will feature teams in the top ten of the NJCAA Division II women's soccer rankings, with #4 Holmes Community College and #5 Jones College on the road on October 14th and 21st respectively.
More information on the Northwest women's soccer team can be found at nwccrangers.com or by following along on Ranger social media accounts.