WICHITA, KS – After an opening scare, the #3 Northwest Mississippi Community College women's soccer team showed that they weren't a team to mess with at the 2025 NJCAA Division II National Tournament, taking down Southern Union State Community College 5-2 on Sunday afternoon to open pool play, scoring all five goals in the second half and limiting the Bison to just four shots in the game.
"It feels awesome," Aven Mathis said. "All of our hard work since August is paying off, so it just feels good to have the first win under our belt."
The Rangers took an early punch from Southern Union when Alexia Charqueno broke through the defense to score an unassisted goal just over a minute into the match to put Northwest on their back heels, but the Rangers didn't stay there for long.
"It's tough coming out and playing against a team you don't really know, and I think in the first five minutes they were the better team," Head Coach James Beattie said. "For me the reaction is what was important. We adjusted a few things tactically and it flipped and the game went in our favor."
"I don't think we were awake, and it woke us up real fast and we knew we had to go. Then our team came through," Mathis said.
Just six and a half minutes later, Sophomore Emma Jensen scored her 28th goal of the season after being awarded a free kick just outside of the 18-yard box. The Gammelby, Germany native blasted the opportunity past the wall and found the bottom right corner of the net to tie the match at 1-1 in the eighth minute.
Another seven minutes went off of the clock on the way to the next goal for Northwest when Maggie Pace sent a ball up into the Kansas wind that bent just inside of the goal posts to give the Rangers their first lead of the game in the 15th minute and less than minute later, the eventual game winner would come off of the foot of Caroline Perkins as she picked up her 16th goal of the season when Jensen found her on a deep pass up the middle of the field to put NWCC up 3-1 in the 16th minute.
The barrage continued on the way to Northwest piling up nine shots in the first half, and one more of those found the back of the net when Mary Logan Clark found a deflection at her feet and finished it into the back of the net for a fourth first half goal from Northwest to push the lead to 4-1 just 25 minutes into the game.
One more Ranger score would follow when a cross off of a corner kick would deflect off of a Southern Union defender and cross the goal line to make it 5-1 in the 28th minute.
The rest of the half would settle into a back and forth with several more attempts from the Rangers being saved but also no headway being made by the Bison into the lead.
In fact, only one change to the score would happen in the final 45 minutes when Macy Chambers was able to take a feed from Alexia Charqueno and beat the Ranger defense to cut into the lead in the 62nd minute to make it 5-2.
Four different players scored a goal in the game for the Rangers and that has been a common theme for Northwest this season, and Mathis said it just shows how dangerous they are.
"It's awesome and it just shows all the talent we have on this team and the diversity we have. Everyone touched the field and that showed today," she said.
Northwest on the other hand was able to used mostly reserves in the second half, saving their starters for their final match in pool play on Tuesday when they will face off against #15 Iowa Lakes Community College who earned the seven seed after upsetting #1 Johnson County Community College in the district championship game to earn an automatic bid into the national tournament field.
"It's so important being able to rotate like we do and being able to rest players to prepare for the next game and I'm so glad I'm on a team that has the ability to do that," Mathis said adding they also need to take the lessons from this game forward with them. "We have to come out fast and we have to come out strong. We are here to win it all and we have to play for God and for each other."
"Every player played today which is huge, not only for a physical aspect of it but the team buy-in aspect that none of them are just standing and watching soccer, but they were all able to contribute to the win today," Beattie said. " We are trying to win this and we have four games in a week.
The match is scheduled to kickoff at 12:30 pm with action being streamed live on the NJCAA Network, although it is pay-per-view. You can follow along with the Rangers trip to Wichita and the national tournament by visiting nwccrangers.com or by following along with Northwest social media accounts.
