Rangers beat Cisco, make SWJCFC playoffs

A goal that the Kilgore College Rangers set at the beginning of every season is to be one of the four teams still standing at the conclusion of the always-grueling Southwest Junior College Football Conference schedule.

It took a monumental effort in the end, but the Rangers accomplished that goal last Saturday, traveling about five hours one-way and handing Cisco a 27-10 loss.

With the victory, the Rangers are now 4-5 on the season, but have won four of their last five games, and claimed the No. 4 seed in the playoffs.

KC will visit Navarro, now the No. 1 team in the country in addition to the top seed in the conference playoffs, on Saturday, a 3 p.m. kickoff. The winner advances to the conference title game the following week. A loss for KC means the end of the season.

See a preview of this game in Game Time Weekly today, on page 8B.

At Cisco, KC defensive back J.R. Osunde tried to one-up the performance the week before of teammate Jimmy Anderson. Anderson had been named the conference’s defensive player of the week in the Rangers’ win over Northeast Oklahoma A&M.

On Saturday, Osunde did well enough to duplicate that feat. making three interceptions against Cisco, one he returned 47 yards for a touchdown.

That touchdown gave KC a 13-7 advantage. Coach J.J. Eckert’s Rangers would add a touchdown pass of 18 yards to Kelvin Hall from freshman quarterback Hans Cook, and a 2-yard scoring run by Terrance Cannon. Early in the game, Cook had a touchdown pass to Trae Hawkins of 9 yards.

Although he didn’t score, T.C. Henry also helped out the Rangers’ cause with three catches for 80 yards. Cannon finished with 44 yards and the 2-yard touchdown.

KC’s defense continued to play lights-out, making five interceptions, recovering three Cisco fumbles and holding the Wranglers to just 1 rushing yard in the second half. That’s an amazing statistic when you consider that Cisco’s lineup includes SWJCFC leading rusher Ketarus Stanton, who has 1,019 yards and seven touchdowns on the season but had just 46 yards against the Rangers.