By OAKLEE FIELDER, Sports Editor
The NWOSU Rangers won at home last weekend in a tight game against the Oklahoma Baptist Bison.
The Rangers, who were on a 4-game losing streak, wanting to get their first win on home turf, faced off against the Bison who had one more win than the Rangers at the time of kickoff.
NWOSU’s Tyler Furey kicked the ball to OBU’s Darius Melton to start the first half of the game. The Bison did not get far at all on the kickoff only getting 5 yards.
Their first drive ended in just one set of downs and they punted to the Rangers. NWOSU was able to get 20 yards across the field until they too had to punt.
OBU got halfway across the field but this attempt was also halted and they punted once again. NWOSU’s next drive was a long one, and they were able to get to OBU’s 22-yard line before the first quarter ended with no points for either team.
At the start of the second quarter, the Rangers were not able to keep the momentum going and had to go for a field goal.
Kale Purvis scored the first points of the game and the score was 0-3 NWOSU. The Bison started their next drive with a 1-yard rush and an incomplete pass.
The next and third play of the drive, NWOSU’s Myles Mays intercepted the pass and got 25 yards for the Rangers as they started to go on the offense. NWOSU had a quick drive and scored with an 18-yard pass to Travis Romar to make the game 0-10 in favor of the Rangers.
OBU started their third drive and the fourth drive of the quarter with hopes of cutting the gap between the two teams. That drive failed and they punted to NWOSU as the kick went out of bounds.
NWOSU started down the field with a 31-yard throw to Travis Romar to get on the Bison’s side of the field in hopes of scoring and taking the lead further. They were able to get a little bit more yards, but decided to go for a field goal on a 4th and 9 and made the score 0-13 for the Rangers as they got ready to defend against Oklahoma Baptist.
The Bison started the drive with their heads down and wanted to get the win. On 3rd and 9 on their 36-yard line, OBU’s Kenny Rosenthal made a 52-yard deep pass to Darius Melton to get on the Ranger’s 12-yard line.
They were able to get their first points in the game and made the score 7-13 NWOSU. There were no other points scored in the first half for either teams.
The second half started with the Rangers on the offense but were not able to get anything out of it.
There was a lot of back and forth without scoring from either the Rangers or the Bison until the Rangers got a 33-yard field goal. The back and forth continued the rest of the quarter without any points being scored.
The Rangers ended the thirdquarter with the ball and started the fourth with a quick touchdown with a rush from Darien Gill and it was 7-23 NWOSU.
The Bison were ready to start the fourth and scored a touchdown with a 2-point conversion to start to generate a comeback. NWOSU responded with a pick six by Wilson Cal to make it 15-30 NWOSU.
OBU put that last drive in the back of their minds and scored 13 unanswered points but in the end were unable to complete their comeback and ended the game with a NWOSU Ranger win.
Playmakers
181 throwing yards
60 passing yards, 1 TD
70 rushing yards, 1 TD
3 field goals, 3 PATs