A season filled with close plays and near misses again fell the other way for the Vicksburg Gators. Northwest Rankin made the key plays to subdue a hard-fighting Gators squad 19-7 Friday night at Memorial Stadium.

The Cougars (6-1, 3-0) remain tied in first with Clinton, while Vicksburg drops to 0-3 in the region and 2-5 overall.

Vicksburg senior tackle Mark Cabatay said the Gators gave it their best shot.

&#8220It was our best game this year. We came out ready to fight. The season is not over for us. We’ve got to keep fighting. We’ve played three top flight teams back to back,” Cabatay said in reference to Provine, Clinton and NWR. &#8220We just have to keep it together.”

&#8220We were lucky to win,” Northwest Rankin coach David Coates said. &#8220We had to have a fake field goal to get one in there for a touchdown. Vicksburg played a very good game while we did just enough to win.”

The Cougars’ fake field goal, which resulted in a 5-yard touchdown pass from holder Josh Brumfield to tight end Jeff Goldsmith, started a wild fourth quarter that saw 23 of the game’s 26 points scored.

Goldsmith’s score made it 9-0, NWR, with 10 minutes, 28 seconds left in the game.

Vicksburg came roaring back, and apparently scored on an 81-yard pass from Stanton Price to Delmon Robinson. But a late holding call negated the score and the Gators settled for a 30-yard gain.

Price then went over the middle to Vernon Wolfe for a 45-yard gain to the Cougar 6. Three plays later, Price again went to Wolfe across the middle for a 10-yard TD pass. Michael Cooper’s kick made it 9-7 with 7:22 left.

The Gator defense then came up with a three-and-out to give the offense the ball at the 45. Price, though, was intercepted on third down by Brandt Sutton, who returned it 40 yards to the Gator 26.

The pick set up a 38-yard field goal by Patrick Ware to extend NWR’s lead to 12-7 with 3:07 to play.

Price again appeared to have the Gators moving when he completed a 20-yard pass to Les Lemons, but another flag – one of a handful of costly penalties on VHS – negated the gain.

Price was able to hit Robinson for an 11-yard first down to the 39 but a second holding call put the Gators in a first-and-20 situation. They never got out of it. Price mis-fired on his next three passes.

On fourth down, Lemons took a lateral and tried a downfield pass to John Qualls that was broken up with 1:18 left.

Though the game was over, NWR tacked on a 24-yard touchdown by Steven Knight to complete the scoring after Ware’s kick at 19-7 with 1:07 remaining.

&#8220The kids did everything we asked of them and gave us a chance to win,” said VHS defensive coordinator Toriano Wells. &#8220We had a DB slip down on the fake field goal and on the pass interference, the officials said our DB grabbed a shoulder pad.”

The pass interference call was one of five penalities over 10 yards in the second half on the Gators. This flag helped convert a fourth down play which NWR used to get its eventual touchdown.

Price had his best effort of the season, going 17-of-34 for 232 yards. Wolfe caught four passes for 97 yards while Qualls had five catches for 64.