Danny Czerwinski, Section618.com

Anna — After a long, mentally and physically exhausting week, the Benton Rangers were ready to get back to football and their winning ways. With their first ever Mississippi Division win still lurking the Rangers visited Anna-Jonesboro and got it with a 42-8 win over the host Wildcats to spoil the AJ Homecoming.

Slow and steady wins the race in many things. This was the case between both teams in the first half. Lots of snaps, moving the ball, gaining yards, but no score by either team in the first quarter. Both teams played evenly with 1 turnover apiece.

The second quarter was the lid was popped off the offensive bottle. AJ drove the ball deep into Benton territory but were unable to score. After a missed field goal attempt, the Rangers pounced on the first score with a very successful and long drive. It was 80 yards, 8 plays in 3 minutes that ended in a Lucas Kinsman 13 yard run putting the Rangers up 7-0.

Benton wasn’t done. The defense made the first big play forcing and recovering a fumble. After that it was another long drive of 9 plays, 68 yards which ended in Tiffin Kozoukas dove in from 1 yard out to give Benton a 14-0 at half.

To start the second half, the Benton defense started the scoring. It was a scoop and score on a fumble by Ethan McCommons for 35 yards to give Benton a 21-0 lead with 10:57 to go in the third quarter.

The Rangers defense established themselves again forcing a three and out. It didn’t take long for another touchdown. 4 plays, 61 yards and in 2 minutes ended in another Kozoukas 1 yard touchdown run giving the Rangers a 28-0 lead.

A couple of cosmetic touchdowns closed out the scoring with the Rangers winning 42-8.

The Rangers improve to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the Mississippi Division. They will host Nashville next week. AJ drops to 1-4 overall and 0-2 in the Mississippi Division. They will travel to Pinckneyville next week.