Alva Review-Courier -

The Northwestern Oklahoma State Rangers hosted the undefeated, fifth-ranked Harding University Bison Saturday afternoon for their final home game of the season.

Though it was a low-scoring match-up in the first half of the game, the Bison seemed content to keep the ball on the ground, allowing them to control the pace despite Northwestern starting with first possession.

The Rangers picked up two quick first-downs to start their first possession of the day as Reid Miller completed a 12-yard pass to Arté Miura Jr. followed by a 10-yard pass to Horatio Smith. Following that, the Rangers tried to go to their ground game, but the Bison's defense was able to hold strong, ending Northwestern's drive with a nine-yard sack from Daylan Skidmore on the sixth play of the drive.

The Bison got their first possession of the night with 12:30 left in the first quarter and didn't relinquish the ball till just under three minutes left in that the period giving them a 16 play, 62-yard drive with over nine minutes of possession.

Though Harding dominated the pace of the game, that first scoring drive ended with just three points, as Northwestern was able to hold the Bison to a 21-yard field goal from Tristan Parsley.

Harding's next scoring drive was just two plays short of their previous as they started from their 48-yard line with 11:16 left before halftime. Time continued to tick off the game clock, as Harding made their slow and steady trek down the field ending on a two-yard rushing touchdown from Michael Latu to increase their lead 0-10.

Though Northwestern's drive ended on their 36-yard line, the Rangers caught a big break on a costly turnover on the punt return from Harding.

As Andrew Lesnick kicked his rugby style punt 39 yards down the field, Harding's Corey Bassett fumbled the ball as it took a high bounce through his hands. This gave Northwestern the opportunity to recover and Rontez Smith did just that as the Rangers started their new drive on Harding's 25 with 2:30 left before the halftime.

Three plays later, Northwestern was forced to go for it on a fourth-down with a yard to go, and Miller answered with a quarterback keeper for 14-yards to the two-yard line. Northwestern running back, Jacob Peyton followed that with a two-yard rushing touchdown. After a successful extra point attempt from Lesnick, the Rangers trailed Harding 7-10 with less than a minute to go in the first half.

That was Northwestern's only touchdown of the night, while Harding's offense continued to wear down the Ranger defense with long drives.

Harding scored just twice more in the third, their first coming on their first drive of the second half. The Bison continued to chip away for yardage all the way to Northwestern's 35 before getting their biggest play of the day with a 35-yard rushing touchdown from Zach Shelley to put the score at 7-17.

The Bison's final touchdown of the night was on their shortest possession of the day as they started their drive with three-straight big rushing plays from Dwayne Carter for a total 51 yards. Carter was able to end the drive for Harding off an eight-yard rushing touchdown to put the score at 7-24, which was the final.

Stats

Leslie Nation

On a quarterback keeper, Reid Miller finds a hole in Harding's defense and takes the ball all the way to the two-yard line for a 14-yard gain.

In the passing game, Miller completed 13 of 36 passes for the game for 159 yards, one interception and no touchdowns. The receivers who contributed to Northwestern's offense were Horatio Smith with four catches for 59 yards, Miura with four receptions for 40 yards, DaShawn Gordon with two catches for 34 yards and Tamarick Courtney with two catches for 24 yards.

On the ground, Miller led in yards with 37 total off 10 attempts followed by Peyton with 18 yards and a touchdown off nine attempts.

Shane Collins had a big game for the Rangers finishing with 21 tackles for the game. Rontez Smith and Maurice Wright Jr. followed with 13 and 12 tackles respectively. Joby Saint-Fleur had nine tackles, Teofilio Freeman had six tackles, Theodis Williams finished with five, and Aharon Barnes and Kyler Ferguson had four tackles apiece.

The Rangers (4-6) will have their final game of the season, finishing up with their longtime rivals, the Southwestern Oklahoma State Bulldogs (4-6), on the road Nov. 12 with a kickoff scheduled for 5:30 p.m.