RANGERS IN TOP FOUR | At Iowa Western Sunday, in national title game with win

There’s only one game that Kilgore College could play that would be bigger than the one they have on Sunday.

Win Sunday, and they’ll get to play in it.

The third-ranked Rangers (9-1) will play No. 2 Iowa Western (10-1) on Sunday at 2 p.m. at Lewis Central Football Field in Council Bluffs Iowa, in one of two national semifinals for the right to play in the NJCAA National Championship Game.

The game will be played on ESPN+, the network’s online streaming service, and broadcast locally on KTBB 92.1-FM, The Team.

If KC can beat Iowa Western, the defending national champions, on Sunday, they’ll face either Hutchinson (Kan.) or East Mississippi Community College on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Ark., for the national championship.

But nobody – no Ranger, no assistant coach, and certainly not KC head coach Willie Gooden – is penciling in the Rangers or Iowa Western into the national title game before winning Sunday’s semifinal.

“We’re focused on this one game,” Gooden told ETBlitz. “This has been a long-term goal for a while. From a big-picture standpoint, our focus is on being 1-0, on Iowa Western.”

The Rangers are 9-1 this season and are representing Texas in this tournament, a four-team tournament that is the very best of the best: the Texas junior college football system, the Mississippi junior college system, the Kansas junior colleges, and the Iowa junior colleges – arguably year-in and year-out, the four best junior college systems around the nation, with only a few (Snow College in Utah, Lackwanna College in Pennsylvania, and Georgia Military) not in the mix.

KC has been off since beating Navarro in the Southwest Junior College Football Conference Championship, 47-39, here at R.E. St. John Memorial Stadium, back on Nov. 18, almost two full weeks ago, and it will be two weeks by the time they take the field Sunday.

“We actually had the best Tuesday practice (this Tuesday) that we’ve had all season,” Gooden said. “…Then Wednesday, it’s more of a game-type environment, and our special teams walk-through. By the end of the week, they hay’s pretty much in the barn at that point.”

The Rangers are facing a Reivers team who’s only loss this year didn’t come until the very last game – against No. 1 Hutchinson, a rematch of last year’s national championship game.

“Last year,” Gooden recalled, “they beat the brakes off of Hutch. Just a few weeks ago, Hutch got to play them at (Hutchinson). Western was up on them early, and Hutch made a couple of plays late. The final score wound up 42-28, Hutch, and that was their only loss in a couple of years.”

Western averages right at 29 points and 332 yards a game, most of it on the ground: they don’t throw the ball that much, or haven’t all season. They average running the ball about 193 yards a game, and have only thrown the ball, on average, about 139 yards a game.

Their defense, though, is strong, giving up on average just 18 points and 77 rushing yards a game.

“The defensive line they have, it’s two-deep,” Gooden said. “They’re relentless to the football. And if you do get them blocked, they don’t stay blocked for long. They get to the ball quick.

“On offense, they’ve got a quarterback from Celina, believe it or not (Hunter Watson). He’s a transfer from Arkansas-Monticello. He’s not big, and he’s not fast, he’s just a playmaker, man. He’s got a little Johnny Manziel in him. He’s a facilitator. He can throw it when he needs to, do what he needs to do there, and if he needs to use his legs, he can do that.

“They’ve got a running back (Jonathan Humpal)  – he’s a hometown kid,” Gooden said. “He can tote the rock, for sure. They’re not going to shock you with statistics. But they’re fundamentally-strong, and they’re not going to make a lot of mistakes. Kind of like New Mexico Military, that our fans are used to seeing – they kind of let you make the mistakes; they hang in long enough, hang around long enough, and let you beat yourself.”

In 11 games this season, Watson, a redshirt sophomore, is 133-of-236 (56 percent) for 1,524 yards, 16 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Only one other quarterback has taken a snap (Chad Kearns) and he’s only taken four.

Watson’s got five receivers with at least 14 catches: Lucci Fidone, Latrell Bonner, L.J. Fitzpatrick, Jordan Johnson, and Bryant Williams. Fidone has 18 catches for 155 yards, but no touchdowns. Bonner has 17 catches for 186 yards, and three touchdowns. Fitzpatrick and Johnson each have 16 catches, Fitz for 185 yards and 2 TDs, Johnson for 235 for three scores. And Williams has 14 catches for 120 yards and two touchdowns.

Tight end Nate Sullivan has seven catches for 171 yards and a TD.

Humpal has played in 10 games, and he’s rushed for 568 yards and six touchdowns. Watson has rushed for 602 yards and six scores, as well, and another back, Bryant Williams, has 616 yards and four scores on 140 carries.

The Reivers have 2,128 yards and 23 touchdowns on 513 carries, average 4.1 yards a carry, and average the 193 yards rushing a game, as mentioned – they also have had 16 fumbles this season, and have lost 12.

Kicker Max Bartachek has made 35-of-40 extra points, and is 7-of-16 in field goal attempts, a long of 45 yards. He’s punted 63 times this season, and averages 37 yards a punt, a long of 71 (wow) and has landed 20 of them inside the 20-yard-line. He has had two of them blocked, and eight of them have been touchbacks.

Defensively, linebacker Ahmad Johnson, a freshman, leads the team in tackles with 49, and has 2 1/2 sacks, seven tackles for loss, and three fumble recoveries.

The Reivers get after the passer: they have 55 sacks this year, led by freshmen defensive lineman Clev Lubin, with 10, and freshman lineman Walt Gray, who has eight.

Lubin has 19 1/2 tackles for loss, and teammate Jaylen Pettus, a sophomore on the D-line, has 12 1/2 tackles for loss.

The pressure on the quarterback often leads to turnovers, and the Reivers get that: they have 20 interceptions, led by Joshua Pierre-Louis’s six. Johnson has three fumble recoveries of the Reivers’ 11.

KC has one thing that Iowa Western doesn’t have: the one loss on the Rangers’ schedule, they avenged.

The Rangers lost to Navarro on Sept. 23, 24-20.

But they got that loss “back,” so to speak, by returning the favor with a win over Navarro in the SWJCFC title game on Nov. 18.

The loss still counts, of course, but while the Reivers do have home field advantage and the nation’s number two ranking coming into the game with KC, the Rangers have won six straight games.

Quarterback Cam Peters, who leads the team in passing, missed the championship game against Navarro with an injury, and Tyler Webb played in that one, helping lift the Rangers with a big win.

For the record, Peters – who may or may not be able to play in the game, his status is unknown at the writing for this story – has completed 112-of-210 passes (53 percent) for 2,140 yards, 26 touchdown to just six interceptions. Peters was a Texas-San Antonio transfer.

Webb on the season, is 46-of-47 for 464 yards, five touchdowns and just one interception.

The Rangers have more capable receivers than most – and more fantastic receivers than most, led by the ever-dangerous Michael Phoenix. Phoenix, a sophomore, has 41 catches for 706 yards and nine touchdowns, just this season. Aldyn Bradly has 21 catches for 233 yards and four scores, and Chris Marshall, a transfer in from Ole Miss, also has 21 catches for 449 yards and five touchdowns. Zeek Freeman, who doubles as a threat in the return game, has 17 catches for 482 yards and four TDs.

KC has rushed, as a team, for 1,726 yards, and average about 4.7 yards per carry. Their leading rusher is Kaden Meredith, who has 570 yards and four touchdowns on 102 carries this season. Dominique Williams (374, 1 TD), Peters (344, 7 TDs), and former Kilgore High standout Trae Epps (243, 2 TDs) are the remainder of the top four Rangers’ rushers.

Another former KHS player, Chris Baldazo, is KC’s kicker and punter, and is fantastic at the double-duty, particularly at kicker. Baldazo is 15-of-17 on field goals this year, a long of 46, and has hit 48-of-51 extra points. He’s punted 36 times and averaged 33 yards a punt, a long of 52.

Linebacker Vincent Paige has led KC in tackles all year and continues to, with 85; Paige has 3 1/2 sacks, and five tackles for loss, and two interceptions. The Rangers have 15 interceptions this season (Jaylen Webb and Julian Payne each have three).

KC has 41 sacks this year (lineman August Salvati leads with seven, and linemate Zavian Tibbs is second with five).

Hutchinson, Kan. the nation’s number one team, is the number one seed in the tournament, rightly so. They play Saturday, at 2 p.m. Central time, and host No. 4 East Mississippi, of Netflix series “Last Chance U,” fame.

East Mississippi earned that No. 4 ranking on the final day of the season, beating previously-fourth-ranked Copiah-Lincoln in the Mississippi junior college championship game, then vaulting Snow into that fourth spot.

So when KC and Iowa Western take the field on Sunday, one participant for the national championship game on Dec. 13 will be set.

For Gooden’s part? He doesn’t care.

“We’re hungry,” Gooden said. “We’re fighting for respect. I told our kids, ‘Let’s take our talents on the national stage, and get that respect.’”