SENATOBIA – The biggest test of the season comes at #4 Northwest Mississippi Community College when they face off against #1 Hutchinson Community College in the NJCAA National Semi-final with a spot in the National Championship Game on December 17th in Canyon, Texas on the line.
The game has been one that has been expected for the Northwest Rangers, who have been in a similar position in past years, making it to the national semifinal round in four of the five seasons it has existed since it was brought into being in the 2021 fall season. The Rangers are an unlucky 0-3 in those games with losses to New Mexico Military Institute in 2021, Iowa Western Community College in 2022, and Iowa Western again in 2024.
The top ranked Blue Dragons are also entering the game as a regular in the postseason have been in each of the last three and coming off of their first national title in 2024 when they defeated Iowa Western in the championship game 28-23. They also played in the title game in 2022, falling to Iowa Western 31-0.
Both teams have won multiple national titles in their history, with Northwest coming in with three titles, including wins in 1982, 1992, 2020, and 2015, while Hutchinson claims titles in 2020 and 2024. You might wonder why both have titles in the 2020 season, and it comes after the MACCC was the only conference to play during the fall and the Rangers won the title game during that season while Hutchinson won the title in the 2021 spring season, which was played in lue of the regular season in 2020 by the rest of the NJCAA.
This season is the first time the two teams have ever matched up against each other in the two programs storied history's and sets up to be a clash of two similar styles, where defense leads the way.
Hutchinson enters the game with a perfect season under their belt, winning the Jayhawk Conference with a 10-0 record and a 6-0 mark in conference play. They also picked up impressive wins against NMMI to open the season where they scored an impressive 76 points before defeating Iowa Western 30-27. They also won both of their other crossover games with the Iowa league with wins over Iowa Central Community College and Ellsworth Community College before starting conference action.
Their closest game in the Jayhawk conference came against Garden City Community College where the Broncbusters held them to 27 points which was the lowest total on the year, tied with a 27-12 win over Butler Community College just three weeks earlier.
Overall, the Blue Dragons come into the national postseason with the lowest scoring defense in the country, only allowing 10 per game and a rushing defense that is second in the nation only giving up 55.3 yards per game. Their defense as a whole is only surrendering 212.1 yards per game and they have scooped up 17 interceptions as a team in their ten games.
The offense for Hutchinson is also a threat, scoring 44 points per game, although in three of their last four they score just 31 or less points in each. They do have two 70 point games this season. The yards per game numbers are a bit more passive this year but the offense does still pick up an impressive 400 yards per game which is tied with Northwest for 13th in the country. They have a balanced attack that averages 180 yards on the ground and 216 yards through the air in each game.
On the other side of the field, Nortwest is a beast of their own on both sides of the ball. The Rangers are riding an eight-game winning streak on the way to a 10-1 record and have shown plenty of grit in wins over a pair of top five teams in the NJCAA rankings the past two games with wins over Copiah-Lincoln Community College and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in the MACCC playoffs.
Northwest's defense is the top defensive team against the run in the nation, only allowing 50.4 yards per game and only 202.4 passing yards per game. They are third in scoring defense this year with only 14.4 points per game against and held Gulf Coast to just 13 points in the MACCC Championship game after the Bulldogs had entered the game averaging 37 per game.
The Rangers aren't a slouch on offense either, averaging 34.1 points per game on offense, stacking up nearly 2000 yards on the ground and another 2400 through the air, both of which are comparable to the high-powered offense of Iowa Western which is the top offensive attack to make the postseason.
Individually, the Rangers are also a balance machine with weapons abounding on both sides of the ball but no true go-to athlete that needed to perform each week. Julius Pope was probably the most versatile weapon on the year for the Rangers, rushing for 729 yards and eight touchdowns while also picking up another 355 through the air for three more scores.
Three other players had over 300 yards on the ground during the season with Jarvis Durr and Ja Keyes gaining 363 and 325 yards respectively and combining for another five touchdowns. Aidan Glover provided another weapon as a second quarterback who showed off his mobility with 334 yards rushing and five touchdowns in ten games.
The air attack for Northwest was also balanced and four main targets developed as the season continued. West Virginia commit Keon Hutchins led the team in receiving with 635 yards and three scores, including a three-touchdown game against Southwest Mississippi where he had 219 yards in the first half on five receptions. He was trailed by M.J. Johnson who finished the year with 442 yards and a three-touchdown game of his own in the postseason against Co-Lin, picking up six scores as well which was tied for the team lead in receiving touchdowns.
Britten Traylor caught a pass in all but one game for Northwest on the season and was third in receiving yards with 429 and Reed Jesiolowski closed out the main targets with 348 yards receiving and four scores in his eleven games as the tight end became a mismatch for defensive gameplans through the end of the year.
Defensively, the Rangers were an even more balanced squad, flying to the ball on the way to only two players picking up more than 50 tackles on the year. Rase Jones and Jerry Wall III, who is signed to play with Charlotte, led the team with 54 and 51 tackles this season and combined to tally 12.5 tackles for loss and 7.5 sacks from their linebacker positions. Marion Keyes also finished with 46 tackles as a defensive back and Chris Thomas was the leader on the defensive line with 39 tackles and 8.5 TFL's.
Jaylen Thomas, who is signed to continue playing at West Virginia was the MACCC North Defensive Player of the Year as a nose tackle, and while his tackle numbers didn't really lead to any eye popping numbers, he was a major force eating up two gaps at a time on the way to one of the better defensive lines in the country this year.
Myles Miller was the leading sack man on the roster, getting to the quarterback 7.5 times this season as the Rangers finished with 33 on the year and had 74 TFL's as a defense. They combined to hold teams to less than 20 yards rushing four times this year and to single digits twice, in wins over Pearl River Community College and Coahoma Community College.
The passing defense only logged six interceptions this season, but they did finish the year with 39 pass breakups, led by Illinois signee Jakwon Morris who had seven on the season.
On the other side of the ball, Northwest will have to find a way to slow down an offense that put up 49 touchdowns in 10 games and averaged 44 points per game behind sophomore quarterback Christian Johnson who completed 60 percent of his passes for 1808 yards and 20 touchdowns.
Johnson was also the leading rusher for the Dragons, compiling 467 yards on the ground this year with six touchdowns, but he did total eight turnovers with five interceptions and three fumbles.
Helping him out in the running game were eight other backs who all carried for at least 100 yards on the season with true freshman Lekedrin Harvey leading the way as the only other back who played in all 10 games for Hutchinson. He carried for 261 yards and four scores, with the touchdown total only being topped by freshman Kade Smith who finished with five on the year in four games with 159 yards.
Rayvelle Leak, Rashaud Hurt, and Deashawn Carter all played in eight games for Hutchinson and combined for over 550 yards on the ground and six touchdowns and as a team the ground game for the Blue Dragons picked up 4.5 yards per carry with 26 total touchdowns, although they did fumble the ball 17 times, losing eight of those.
While the running game was full of freshman with a few veterans to stabilize it, the receiving game was where the Blue Dragons really had the biggest veteran presence this year. Derrick Salley Jr. was the top target for Johnson, pulling in 41 receptions for 726 yards and 12 touchdowns, all of which were well above the players behind him in the route tree.
LT Robinson added 381 yards on 23 receptions in nine games and Kordell Gouldsby, Eddie McLaughlin, and Bobby Shaw III all had 21 receptions and over 200 yards each, combining for seven touchdowns between the trio. All of them are second year players, with Shaw lining up as a redshirt freshman behind the crew of five other sophomores.
On the defensive side, sophomore linebacker Teegan Haines led a defense that had as much balance as the Rangers when it came to spreading around the tackles. Haines picked up 70 on the season with eleven for a loss and two sacks. Darius Wiley and K.J. Henson were also threats from the defensive line, with defensive end Wiley leading the roster with 17.5 TFL's and 8.5 sacks while tackle Henson finished with 38 tackles and 5.5 sacks.
Other key lineman to watch were sophomore defensive end Kevin Moorer who had half of his 25 tackles come in the backfield with 7.5 sacks to boot and Jlynn Allen who had 11 TFL's and eight sacks.
MJ Graham was the top defensive back for the Blue Dragons, picking up a team high six interceptions and playing a big role with his 31 tackles, which included 5.5 for a loss. Da'Mun Allen added another four interceptions and as a team they picked off opposing quarterbacks 17 times by seven different players.
Beyond the teams and the players, the weather is the other piece to keep an eye on, but as of now, it isn't looking like it should be much of a factor other than just being a cold night, with temperatures expected to be in the mid to low 40's at the start of the game and dropping down to the high 30's by the time it is expected to wrap up. Winds will be present between 10 and 15 mph through the game which could play a role in the special teams, where both teams have strong kicking games.
The game will be streamed online on ESPN+ with kickoff set for 6:00 pm. You can find streaming information online at nwccrangers.com and on Ranger social media accounts, where you can also keep up with live updates from the field.
