ETBLITZ.COM GAME OF THE WEEK | No. 5 KC at No. 6 Navarro Saturday; Kilgore’s Todd honored
One look at the NJCAA top 10, one look at the Kilgore College schedule – one look into the eyes of KC head coach Willie Gooden, and it doesn’t take much to figure out what game is the ETBlitz.com Game of the Week.
It’s KC-Navarro week, baby.
Gooden’s Rangers, ranked No. 5 in the NJCAA’s national poll, are hitting the road for the first time this season, and it’s a doozy: a short trip, relatively speaking, about two hours down Highway 31 to Corsicana, the home of Collin Street Bakery, the original home of Wolf Chili – the home of the Navarro Bulldogs, currently ranked No. 6 in the top 10, and with greedy eyes, eyes that want to take that Southwest Junior College Football Conference crown from the Rangers.
It’s a rematch of the SWJCFC title game from a year ago, a 7 p.m. kickoff at Navarro on Saturday night. It’s where football fans want to be. It’s where ETBlitz will be. We’ll have you covered.
If you’re coming down for this showdown, here’s how to get tickets: https://ncbulldogs.hometownticketing.com/embed/all.
The game will be played at Tiger Field at CNB&T Stadium, and if you absolutely can’t make it, listen to KC’s own Manny Almanza and Bob Brewer on 92.1-FM, The Team. Listen on the radio, or at this link: 92.1 FM – The TEAM Sports Radio (theteamfm.com). Brewer, by the way, is a former San Francisco 49er – he actually caught Joe Montana’s first touchdown pass!
If you’d like to see Navarro’s live streaming broadcast of the game, here’s a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOXyREfX5yY
And for Kilgore High School fans, Navarro has something special you might want to catch. Former Kilgore athlete Jess Todd, who played baseball and football for the Bulldogs, is being inducted into the Navarro Bulldogs Hall of Fame, and for good reason.
At KHS, Todd was a part of the 2003 Kilgore football team that went 12-2, won a playoff game at Texas Stadium over Wylie, and eventually lost a nailbiter to Matthew Stafford, Clayton Kershaw and the Highland Park Scots at Rose Stadium in Tyler (it wasn’t CHRISTUS nor Trinity Mother Frances back then).
Later that school year, in baseball season (spring 2004), Todd would be a part of a long baseball run that would see Kilgore fall just one round shy of the state tournament – but they’d get revenge on Highland Park, knocking Stafford, Kershaw and crew out of the 4A playoffs in a classic neutral-site game at Sulphur Springs.
Todd and other Navarro athletes are being honored in a ceremony at the Cook Center at 1 p.m. on Saturday, then recognized at Saturday night’s game.
Jess went on to play for Navarro in 2006, going 9-2 for the Bulldogs and, according to a post by their athletic department this week, is considered to be likely the best pitcher in the history of Navarro baseball.
He transferred to the University of Arkansas, where he earned All-SEC Tournament honors and at one point in the 2007 SEC tournament, Jess notched 17 strikeouts in eight innings, setting SEC and school records.
He was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the second round in 2007, and also played for the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians).
We congratulate Jess!
And Saturday night, though, there’s a game to be played.
This is the 95th meeting between KC and Navarro, and Navarro leads the series, 46-44-4 – one of the few that the Rangers regularly play that they don’t lead.
The two split last year’s series, with Navarro taking the regular season meeting at Kilgore’s R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium, and Gooden and the Rangers getting the last laugh, beating the Bulldogs in the rematch in the high-scoring conference championship game, 48-39. That title game win sent KC – then ranked fourth in the nation – to the NJCAA’s national playoff.
Gooden, a Hempstead native and himself a former Ranger, is so wrapped in KC tradition, it’s ridiculous. He was on the KC team that went 12-0 in 2001, and has been an assistant coach at every position possible before taking the head coaching reins in 2019. He has an overall record of 40-11, and he’s guided the Rangers to back-to-back Southwest Junior College Football Conference titles – an unbelievable feat in itself. KC is pursuing a third straight conference championship.
The Rangers are 2-0, with wins over Monterrey Tech, a team from Mexico that came to Kilgore back on Aug. 24 and left with an L, and New Mexico Military Institute. That win over NMMI was last week, a 40-30 score, and saw KC score in every phase of the game.
Tyler Webb threw touchdown passes to Melvin Polk and Cedric Harden; Marcus Moultre had a 75-yard kickoff return for a touchdown; DaeVaughndric Lewis had a 70-yard interception return for another score; Gary Maddox ran for just under 100 yards and scored a TD; Luke McMullen ran for 88 yards, a part of a 219-yard rushing day for the Rangers; and Jaylen Webb had an interception – he’s got three this season, in two games. That’s as many as the Navarro defensive unit has collectively through two games.
Also against NMMI, Darmel Hollins had a blocked extra point, and a fumble recovery, and Polk and Devontae Mozee each had long returns to set the offense up for short drives that ended in scores.
Navarro is led by coach Ryan Taylor, the former Tyler Junior College standout from Denison, who finished his college career at UCLA. To be a young coach, he’s done a lot, including win a SWJCFC title with Cisco back in 2021. He’s got a 25-14 record as a head coach, and is in his third season at Navarro, where he is 14-9.
The Bulldogs are also 2-0 this season – they won the 500th game in program history last week, a 48-21 win over Northeastern Oklahoma A&M (NEO).
Navarro averages 41 points and 331 yards a game, and is allowing 348 yards a game – 226 rushing yards a game.
Elsewhere in the conference this weekend, Trinity Valley plays at Cisco, and Blinn plays at New Mexico Military. NEO, Trinity Valley and TJC are all open.
