ELLISVILLE – One of the top junior college matchups in the nation will take place at Bobcat Stadium/Sim Cooley Field on Thursday.
 
No. 15 Jones College will host No. 2 Northwest Mississippi with a 7 p.m. kickoff. The game will air on JCJC.TV, WLAU-FM, 99.3, and SuperTalkLaurel.com with Luke Johnson and Chuck Robertson on the call.
 
Bobcat head coach Steve Buckley has great respect for the Rangers of head coach Benjy Parker. Northwest captured the MACCC championship in 2020 and posted a 6-0 record. The Rangers are also ranked No. 1 in the JCGridiron.com poll
 
"What Coach Parker and his staff have done is pretty remarkable," he said Tuesday morning. "They have been as consistent as anybody in the league since I've been in the league. They do a great job of coaching and recruiting. 
 
"It will be a tremendous challenge. Obviously, they are deserving of all of their rankings. They went undefeated last year and had a tremendous year."
 
Last week, Jones opened the 2021 campaign with a solid, 41-17 win over Northeast Mississippi. The Rangers knocked off Copiah-Lincoln, 31-12.
 
Buckley said the Bobcats and Rangers are similar.
 
"Our programs are a lot alike to be honest with you," he said. "From a scheme standpoint, offensively, we do a lot of the same things and have a lot of the same philosophies. They are going to be a 3-down base defense and Benjy has been running that defense for a long time, so they know what they are doing with it."
 
Buckley said watching the tape of the Rangers' win over Co-Lin, it's apparent they have not skipped a beat.
 
"They have eight or nine starters returning on defense and they lost a few more than that on offense," he said. "But they are really good up front on both sides of the ball. The offensive line can be dominant at times. They've got skill guys. (Wide receiver) No. 4 (D.T. Sheffield) can accelerate and make big plays. They have good, big backs and big, physical tight ends. The quarterback (Michael Hiers) is a very smart player. He is not going to beat you with his legs, but he does run good enough to make plays and extend plays."
 
Hiers, a 6-foot, 215-pound redshirt sophomore from Birmingham, Alabama, was excellent for Northwest last week. He completed 16-of-27 passes for 306 yards and two touchdowns. He transferred to Northwest from Murray State following the 2019 season.
 
"It kind of felt like the same game as us," Buckley said after watching Northwest in its opener. "It was close early and they ended up getting some scores late. They are a good football team. They were the best team in the state last year and their record speaks for itself over the last few years."
 
In the Bobcats' win over Northeast, Jones established itself quickly.
 
La'Damian Webb (Opelika, Alabama) ran 68 yards for a touchdown on the Bobcats' second play from scrimmage. He ended the game with 193 yards on 20 carries and scored twice.
 
"You could not ask for a better start – two plays and we're in the end zone," Buckley said. "The mindset going in was to dominate up front and let's run the ball early. The second play went to the safety untouched and La'Damian made a cut off the safety. I thought we ran the ball very, very well all night."
 
Jones ended up with 326 yards rushing.
 
The Bobcats had 408 yards of total offense, compared to 227 yards for Northeast. Jones held the Tigers to just 3-of-13 on third down conversions. The Bobcats ran 70 plays from scrimmage, compared to 66 for Northeast.
 
"From an offensive standpoint, I think we had 15 possessions and only had two '3 and outs,'" Buckley said. "You flip it over and Northeast had 16 possessions and they had 10 '3 and outs.' So, that's a huge swing in a lot of ways.
 
"Going into the season, we had two goals offensively. One, was to run more plays. We've been a slower tempo offense. We were able to get 70 plays and that was our goal. The last four years, we've averaged about 62 plays. The second goal we had was to eliminate negative plays. We only had one negative play in the run game and that was on a high snap. Besides that, we were pretty clean."
 
The Bobcats, however, struggled in the passing game Quarterbacks Quaterius Hawkins (Bastrop, Louisiana) and Alan Follis (West Jones) were a combined of 8-of-23 through the air for just 82 yards and one interception.
 
"Obviously, we've got to throw the ball better," Buckley said. "If you catch the six balls that we dropped – which is very uncharacteristic of our team – you feel a little bit different after that game as far as throwing it. I think from the quarterback position DaeDae and Alan have to play better this week. They did not play bad, but we have to be cleaner. It's not just them. It's protection, routes – it was a lot like a first game in a lot of ways.
 
"I think there is a lot of improvement that can be made offensively."
 
On the other side of the ball, the Bobcats limited big plays and held Northeast to just 13 first downs and 94 yards rushing. Jones also forced four turnovers with Jodie Williams (Holmes County Central) getting an interception and Travor Randle (Greenwood), Tylan Glass (Nanih Waiya) and Ty Rawls (Wetumpka, Alabama) recovering fumbles.
 
"Defensively, we created turnovers," Buckley said. "We got off the field with '3 and outs' which was very impressive and we limited them to only three explosive plays. We had 15 explosive plays. I think from a defensive standpoint, we aligned correctly and did some really good things. I thought we were in control of the ballgame from a defensive standpoint the whole game."
 
The Bobcats also had two touchdowns on special teams. 
 
Lardarius Webb Jr. (Jackson Academy) returned a punt 62 yards for a touchdown and Randle ran a fumble back 27 yards for a score when the Tiger punter dropped the ball.
 
"We had the big punt return and we had the 'scoop and score' on the bobbled snap on the punt return team," Buckley said. "You get 14 points off the kicking game and that's huge, not only on the scoreboard, but in terms of momentum swings, too."
 
Buckley was pleased the Bobcats' effort and performance in game one.
 
"I thought overall we were OK," he said. "We've got to play better to win a bunch of games this year. I think everybody that played college football this past week feels the same way."
 
During Buckley's tenure at Jones, the Bobcats are 1-1 vs. Northwest. Jones won a wild, 36-34 contest at home in the conference playoffs in 2018. The Rangers won a 24-17 decision in Senatobia in 2019 in another playoff game.
 
"We've played them twice and both games have been pretty good ones," Buckley said. 
 
Single-game and season tickets are on sale now through jcbobcats.com/tickets. Jones has partnered with HomeTown Ticketing to provide fans with the convenience of cashless, paperless and pre-sale ticketing.
 
The Bobcats open MACCC South Division play next week then they visit East Central for a 6:30 p.m. game on Sept. 16. Northwest begins North Division play Sept. 16 at Holmes.