BETHANY, Okla. – Given an opportunity to "pick on someone their own size," Northwestern Oklahoma State fully embraced the role of the bully.
Seven days removed from a rough loss at nationally-ranked Pittsburg State, the Rangers pummeled fellow NCAA Division II transitional Southern Nazarene 62-17.
Jarion Tudman and Javari Liggins both tied Great American Conference single-game rushing touchdown records with four each. Northwestern piled up a season-high 325 rushing yards, while also forcing five SNU turnovers.
"We corrected a lot of wrongs from last week. We quite easily could have been beaten down mentally coming out of Pittsburg State, but our kids came out here and played hard," said Northwestern head coach Alan Hall. "There's a confidence level between us and them. We believe we can win against these guys wherever we're playing at."
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Northwestern (2-8, 2-7 GAC) bumped its all-time record to 9-1 against its former Central States Football League rival by notching its seventh straight victory. The Rangers also improved to 6-0 at SNU Stadium.
Liggins rushed for 142 yards on 23 carries with four touchdowns. Tudman also scored four times, narrowly missing a 100-yard day of his own. He finished with 95 yards on 23 rushing attempts.
"We felt going in that we had an advantage there," Hall said. "Our offensive line is probably a little more seasoned, and we wanted to take advantage."
L.T. Pfaff finished with modest but effective totals, going 8-of-14 for 95 yards and a touchdown. Davontaa Bryant led the receivers with four catches for 33 yards. Schanbacher had two receptions for 34 yards.
The Ranger defense, which came in averaging less than one takeaway per game, forced three interceptions – two of them by Keenan Santacruz – to go along with a pair of fumbles. SNU (0-10, 0-10 GAC) turned the ball over three times in the first eight minutes, leading to three Ranger touchdowns.
Northwestern twice tried to punt the ball away on its opening possession, but SNU refused to cooperate. A roughing the kicker flag kept the Ranger offense on the field, as did a muffed return just a couple of plays later. Joby Saint Fleur fell on the loose ball at the SNU 22 to give Northwestern a fresh set of downs and great field position. Three plays later, Liggins punched it in from 15 yards out for a 7-0 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Kevin Ditch's pooch kick was recovered by the Rangers – again at the SNU 22. Pfaff hit Davontaa Bryant with a pair of short passes down to the 2, and Liggins handled the rest.
Already up 14-0, the Rangers intercepted SNU quarterback on Dylan Terry on the very first carry of the ensuing drive – this time at the SNU 19. Jarion Tudman's 11 yard touchdown run built the lead to 21-0.
The Crimson Storm followed with a touchdown drive, but Northwestern responded with a mammoth 15-play, 75-yard drive that ate up over six minutes of clock. Liggins' nine-yard run made it a 28-7 game with 5:39 to play in the first half.
After a SNU field goal, the Rangers scored twice in the final minute of the first half to put the game well out of reach.
Quarterback L.T. Pfaff broke a 50-yard run to the SNU 3. Two plays later, Tudman broke found the endzone on a three-yard carry.
Terry was intercepted by Keenan Santacruz on the ensuing possession. Pfaff capitalized with a 23-yard strike to a diving Justin Schanbacher to make it a 42-10 game going into the break.
Santacruz now has four picks in two career games against SNU. Derrick Thompson had the other interception. That came in the second half on a leaping grab in the endzone to deny a SNU score.
Northwestern continued its assault early in the third when Tudman broke free from 46 yards out for another touchdown and a 49-10 advantage.
Tudman added one more TD run late in the third. He had a shot at reaching 100 yards on Northwestern's final drive of the day but lost a yard on two carries. Liggins finished the drive out for a 62-10 lead with 3:15 remaining in the game.
SNU tacked on one final score against the Ranger reserves for the final margin.
Winners of two-straight Great American Conference games, the Rangers will look to finish out the year with a 3-1 record against Oklahoma conference rivals when they wrap up the season next Saturday against Southwestern Oklahoma State.
