SENATOBIA – In one of their most complete performances of the year, the #7 Northwest Mississippi Community College football team (4-2, 3-0) won their third consecutive game with a 45-7 victory over the Coahoma Community College Tigers (0-6, 0-3) at Bobby Franklin Field. The win was the highest-scoring game of the year for the Rangers and helped to cap homecoming with a celebration for a packed house.
"We executed," Offensive Coordinator Stan Hill said. "We have been putting players in good situations the last few weeks, and for whatever reason, a fumbled snap, a dropped ball, or just not executing, but we executed at a high level tonight. When we play like that, we are hard to deal with."
Northwest opened the game on defense, and as has been the trend in their last two wins, they were able to force a three-and-out on the opening drive by the visitors, picking up the ball after a short punt that set them up at their own 41-yard line.
Chunk plays were the name of the game for the Ranger offense on the way to the Coahoma red zone, leading to a first-and-goal from the five-yard line, and Noah Gillon got the call for the touchdown rush up the middle and an early 7-0 advantage.
Another three-and-out was forced by the defense, limiting the Tigers to only six yards for their second drive in a row, leading to another punt that set up Northwest with good position at their own 35.
From there, it was the Damon Sisa show. The sophomore transfer touched the ball three times, with two rushes and one catch, going all 65 yards on the way to a second touchdown of the game and a 14-0 lead for the Rangers with just over eight minutes to go.
"I knew I had to make a play," Sisa said. "Coach Hill had told me this morning that I was going to get the ball, so I just went out there and made my play like I was supposed to."
The Tigers finally got the ball into good field position, starting on their own 36, and picked up the first down for their first of the game after a penalty on fourth down moved the chains into Ranger territory for the first time.
They would move inside of the 40, but after being pushed back into a fourth-and-13, they had to put it in the air, and Clytravus Lewis would pick the ball off after it was tipped at the line for the freshman's first interception of his career.
Northwest would take the interception and drive down the field, closing out the quarter in scoring position just outside of the red zone, and Gillon spread the ball to another new face, finding Quincy Phillips Jr. for the score on a dot from 35 yards out and a 21-0 Ranger edge.
Another punt followed by the Tigers on their next possession after moving the ball across the 50 and stalling out after a sack by the Ranger defense, but the special teams would pin the Northwest offense for the first time, forcing them to start at the one-yard line in their own territory.
Gillon again stepped up and exploded for a quarterback keeper for 69 yards to the Coahoma 30, flipping the field and setting up another opportunity for the Rangers to score. The Tigers stood tall, though, and forced a 41-yard attempt by Will Uselton, which just missed to the right, and for the first time, the Rangers were held off the scoreboard.
On their ensuing drive, the Tigers were able to move the ball inside the Rangers' 30, facing a Fourth-and-two coming out of the two-minute timeout. For the second time on the night, Northwest was able to keep them from converting, giving Northwest the ball for a chance to strike before the end of the half with Neko Fann leading the charge for the first time on the night.
He would march them down the field with efficiency, setting up the offense with the ball at the two for a fourth-and-one with just over 34 seconds left. A late injury on the third-down play would see Fann injured, and he wouldn't return to the game, and Hill said it was a difficult loss in more ways than one.
"It's a tragedy to lose Neko. He's our starting quarterback, and the team is going to feel that loss. He is a leader and everything you want in a quarterback. I feel like we have the best two quarterbacks in the league, hands down. He's won a lot of games for the Rangers, and he's one of the best quarterbacks I've ever coached."
Noah Gillon would finish the drive for his second rushing touchdown of the game, making it a 28-0 lead.
It seemed like that would be the score going into the half, but a long return by Coahoma would set them up for a 41-yard field goal attempt. That was when an already impressive night for the Ranger defense became extraordinary.
Jovarius Lundy would come screaming around the edge to block the kick, and Chase Meeking would scoop the ball off the turf and return the ball for a 67-yard touchdown as time expired, giving the Rangers a 35-0 lead at the half, and they would get the ball at the half.
"It was a great play, but without Jovarius I wouldn't have gotten it, so a big thanks to him and that aggression. It was a huge momentum changer," Meeking said.
The numbers spoke for themselves, with the Northwest offense outgaining the Tigers 338 to 122, while running two fewer plays than the visitors in the first half.
Northwest went right back to it in the second half, marching down the field on an extended drive that chewed up over eight minutes of clock, using their stable of running backs to stay fresh on the field and moving inside the ten.
"We are going to run the football," Hill said. "Our offense is built on the run game. Period. Obviously we are going to throw it, and we have had a lot of success throwing it this year, but when we get the run game going, and get a hat on a hat and start picking up five, six, seven yards a pop, that's what we want to be."
They would be stopped short of scoring a touchdown and would run out the field goal unit for a 24-yard attempt from Uselton, and the freshman would convert on the attempt to push the lead to 38-0, starting the running clock.
Coahoma worked against the Rangers' second string on their next drive, and a long march for the Tigers would finally see them cross the goal line for their first points, trimming the lead back to 38-7. The joy from the Tigers was short-lived thanks to a bit of magic from the Northwest special teams.
The kickoff would be taken by Sisa, who found a lane that led him to the Coahoma sideline, and he would race to the house for a 98-yard touchdown.
"It was a middle return, so the middle was bound to be open if everyone blocked their guy, so I just found some green grass, and after I saw the kicker, I knew I just had to make him miss, and I would have a touchdown," Sisa said.
Sisa became the first Ranger to return a kickoff since Keyon Fordham returned the ball 95 yards against East Central on August 29, 2019. It is also tied for the fourth-longest return in program history, with two other 98-yard returns behind a trio of 100-yard returns.
Northwest forced a three-and-out on the next drive, and the Rangers would send out the second-string offense to finish the win off, improving to 48-2 all-time against Coahoma and extending their winning streak to 16 consecutive wins, with the last loss coming in the 2009 season.
The offense was led by Gillon, who finished the night going 13-for-17 through the air with one touchdown, adding another 72 yards on the ground, including his 69-yard run for a game-high for both teams. Fann added another 59 yards passing on a 5-of-7 night through the air before he was injured at the end of the first half.
Northwest's rushing attack finished with 187 yards overall, with no player carrying it more than nine times, with Macaleb Taylor taking the lead with 26 yards, adding another 28 through the air on three receptions.
DJ Woods had another three carries for 33 yards, and Jermany Hayden added four carries for 30. In all, nine different players finished the night with carries.
"That's just what we come to work for every day," Sisa said. "I tell everyone, you always have to be ready. You never know when you could get in, so everyone has to go in and play hard because we all are good players."
Sisa was the leading receiver for the Rangers, pulling in three receptions for 66 yards, including a long of 52 on the drive in which he scored a touchdown. Phillips Jr. had two receptions in the first half for 52 yards and a score, and three other Rangers had three receptions, including TyAnthony Elmore, Taylor, and Woods.
On the defensive side, Lewis had his best night as a Ranger, picking up three solo tackles on the way to six total, adding a half sack and a TFL, along with the lone interception of the game. No other Ranger had more than three total tackles as Northwest showed a true team effort on the way to the victory.
Meeking said this is a defense that doesn't care about who makes the play, but just that the play is being made.
"We're starting to click now," he said. "With all of the work we put in, we know what this team is capable of. These last three weeks, things are going how we wanted, but now we have to keep it up. 1-0 each week. We just care about each other, and we just want to get to the championship and win it all."
Lundy's block was one of two big special teams plays that proved to be difference makers, with the return by Meeking joining a return from Sisa for 166 total return yards from the special teams for touchdowns.
Uselton capped off the Rangers' special teams with a 6-for-6-night kicking PATs, making 1 of 2 field goals for nine total points. For the first time in the season, he was not called upon to make a punt in the game.
The Rangers will head back out onto the road next week when Thursday takes them to Goodman for a battle with the Holmes Community College Bulldogs (1-5, 1-1), who fell to Itawamba Community College 30-15 on the road in Fulton. The Indians remained at the top of the MACCC North Division with the win, improving to 5-1 on the year and staying matched with the Rangers at 3-0 overall.
Hill said as a team, they aren't worrying about records or results from anyone else. Each week brings its own challenge, and they will be ready for Holmes.
"We don't look at who we are playing next week. I don't think we will have a problem with that. Coach Parker does a good job, and next week is next week. We aren't looking two weeks and three weeks away. There is no next week; there's every week. We will have to get out there and execute on offense, and the defense is going to do their thing."
