RAYMOND - The top ranked Northwest Mississippi Community College women's soccer team never trailed and spread the scoring out to five different attackers as they remained unblemished in their title defense with an 11-3 victory over Hinds Community College (6-2-1, 0-2) on Friday afternoon, exploding with five goals in the first 17 minutes of the second half to pull away from the Eagles to improve to 7-0 on the year and 2-0 in MACCC action. 

The Rangers opened the game with a familiar face on their scoring list when Emma Jensen made a penalty kick to get the early advantage, and two more were stacked onto that lead in the 13th and 15th minutes when Caroline Hamm struck for a pair of goals, finding the net from at the top of the box for her first and finishing a corner kick on an assist from Mary Logan Clark, increasing the lead to 3-0. 

Hinds used a quick strike down the sideline to set up a one on one with Ann Marie Barton which resulted in a chip just past the Rangers goalie to get the Eagles back into the game and slow down the Rangers momentum in the 17th minute. 

Both sides settled into a back and forth for nearly ten minutes until the Rangers went to Aven Matthews who took a pass from Mackenzie Rankins after a blocked shot by the Hinds goalie, taking advantage of her being out of position to finish the shot for her first goal of the season on the freshman's only shot of the game, building the lead back to 4-1. 

The Eagles added another goal in the 36th minute on a cross into the box to aid in their effort but the Rangers were still in full control going into the half doubling up Hinds with a 4-2 lead. 

It was a very different tone from Northwest in the second half, striking early and often to put the game away beginning with a unassisted goal from Caroline Perkins just 20 seconds into the second half to start the avalanche. Two and a half minutes later, Jensen picked up her second of the game when Allie Sifford drew the defense's attention to set up the sophomore for a one-on-one with the Eagles goalie and she didn't miss to make it 6-2. Sifford was in almost the exact same position three minutes later and this time kept the ball herself to pick up the goal thanks to Jensen playing decoy to draw the attention as the score ballooned to 7-2 in the 51st minute. 

A brief lull gave Hinds a chance to catch their breath but it was short-lived when Joline Knevel added her name to the tally sheet with a beautiful strike from inside the 18-yard box on a feed from Kassidy McMillan. McMillan was at it again with 28 minutes to go in the game when she found Jensen for her third goal of the game and her second hat trick of the season on a chip over the goalie to make it 9-2 and shock the Eagles with their fifth unanswered goal of the second half. 

The bench came in for the remainder of the game on a full swap after the goal and Hinds held them off of the board for the next 20 minutes while adding a third goal to their score in the 75th minute on a dump over the Ranger defense to set up the score and close the game to 9-3.

That joy was short lived for the Eagles when Mary Logan Clark left some jaws on the floor with a 25-yard strike on an unassisted goal to give NWCC double figures and make it 10-3 in the 82nd minute, and rinsed and repeated in the 89th minute to ice the game and set the mercy rule in place with a bullet from the top of the 18-yard box that found the top corner and finished the game shy of the final horn for the Rangers sixth mercy rule win of the year. 

Northwest led the day in shots on goal with 26 in the game and put 14 on the frame, most of those finding the back of the net. They did come away with six corner kicks in the match and only allowed six shots on goal by the Eagles, three of which were saved by Barton. The Rangers also played a clean game on defense, only committing six fouls in the match and were clean of yellow cards. They were only called for five offsides, most of which came late in the second half. 

The win was the Rangers 29th in a row going back to last season's 22-0 national championship season and their 19th win in a row against conference opponents with their last loss coming on October 20th, 2023. They will be back in action on Tuesday afternoon when they host Itawamba (3-2-2, 0-1-1) at the Ranger Soccer Complex with kickoff scheduled for 5:00 PM. The game will be streamed on Ranger TV beginning at 4:50 pm with Matt Infield on the call. Follow along with Ranger social media for more information on this and other upcoming games.