BY MIKE MONTFORT
ATHENS -- With little advance warning for TVCC's Homecoming and Hall Of Fame crowd Saturday, an Air Raid siren triggered Navarro Football to 24 unanswered points and a relentless 38-7 bombing during the final 18 minutes at Bruce Field.
Coach Scott Parr's Bulldogs, firing big-play salvos almost at will, emerged from the 101st meeting of the neighboring-county rivals with a 61-40 win over a TVCC club that's been ranked between fourth and eighth place nationally all season. Saturday's loss was the second straight for the Cardinals.
Navarro stockpiled some statistics that border on outrageous.
First, Navarro's 61 points is the most it has scored in a game against TVCC, surpassing a 59-26 victory back when TVCC was known as Henderson County Junior College in 1954.
Second, against a Cardinal defense ranked fifth nationally in total defense that had allowed about 206 yards per game, NC steamrolled its way to 616 yards offense, thanks to a 300-yard passer in Qua Gray, a 100-yard rusher in Elijah Hines and two 100-yard receivers in the electric Jeremiah Aaron and Karl Reynolds.
To top it all, the Bulldogs racked up 988 total yards -- exceeding a team record 924 set against the Cardinals during a 55-51 loss at Bruce Field in 2011. NC's special teams and defense produced a mind-boggling 372 return yards, primarily thanks to Aaron, Adonis Scott and C.J. Bosket. The breakdown: seven kickoff returns for 206 yards, five punt returns from 74 yards, and three interceptions resulting in 92 yards and a touchdown.
Scott, a freshman from Desoto, piled up 212 return yards from eight touches; Aaron, the NJCAA's all-purpose yardage leader, had 55 yards from three touches.
For the second week in a row, Navarro's defense picked off three passes and retuned one for a score. C.J. Bosket, who picked off two during the final quarter, returned one 87 yards for the Bulldogs' final tally with 2:45 left. Bosket now tied for second among NJCAA interceptors, has five interceptions on the season.
And finally,First-Team All-American placekicker Alexis Lopez took over the NJCAA kick-scoring lead with 70 points on the season after contributing 19 points to the cause Saturday, drilling four field goals (22, 24, 32, 32) and seven consecutive conversions.
Gray completed his first eight passes of the game as the Bulldogs won a 31-point first period, 17-14.
The Lubbock Coronado sophomore finished 20-of-34 for 388 yards and four touchdowns. Bidding to become Navarro's fourth consecutive NJCAA pass yardage leader, Gray threw touchdown passes of 8 and 77 yards to Karl Reynolds, 25 to Isaiah Robinson, and 96 to Jeremiah Aaron.
Gray now has a 2021 NJCAA-high 2,648 yards passing and a Navarro career total of 3,448.
Aaron (40-743-5) and Reynolds (27-542-9) continue to star. Aaron's caught a pass in every game this season with 3 100-plus yardage efforts. His 96-yard TD reception erased his previous long 94 during a 39-31 loss to NMMI.
Reynolds now has caught 20 passes with seven touchdowns in his last four games.
Robinson inched closer to Navarro career rushing records Saturday, but ground out a tough 89 yards on 19 carries against TVCC's rushiing defense. The Humble sophomore now has career marks of 387-2114-20. He needs 69 yards to break Tim Wright's rushing total of 2,182.
Navarro (4-4) will have an open date before returning home to conclude the SWJCFC regular season against the Cisco Wranglers, a 38-19 upset winner over previously unbeaten NMMI at Roswell, NM.
--------
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Navarro…………..17……3……24……17 – 61
Trinity Valley……14…..13……6……..7 – 40
SCORING SUMMARY
TVCC – Cameron Collier, 5-run. (Jake Gaster kick). 13:18, 1Q
NC – Karl Reynolds, 8-pass from Qua Gray. (Alexis Lopez kick). 8:29, 1Q
NC – Alexis Lopez, 22-FG. 5:34, 1Q
TVCC – Cam Camper, 34-pass from Jordan Davis. (Jake Gaster kick). 3:59, 1Q
NC – Isaiah Robinson, 25-pass from Qua Gray. (Alexis Lopez kick). 3:40, 1Q
TVCC – Cordrick Dunn, 3-run. (Jake Gaster kick). 14:30, 2Q
TVCC – Jordan Davis, 4-run. (Jake Gaster kick). 9:49, 2Q
NC – Alexis Lopez, 32-FG. 6:49, 2Q
TVCC – Jake Gaster, 48-FG. 9:18, 3Q
NC – Alexis Lopez, 24-FG. 6:00, 3Q
TVCC – Jake Gaster, 44-FG. 3:41, 3Q
NC – Elijah Hines, 65-run. (Alexis Lopez kick) 3:23, 3Q
NC – Jeremiah Aaron, 96-pass from Qua Gray. (Alexis Lopez kick). 2:13. 3Q
NC – Elijah Hines, 31-run. (Alexis Lopez kick). 0:07, 3Q
NC – Alexis Lopez, 32-FG. 9:04, 4Q
TVCC – Nathan Jones, 8-pass from Bronson McClelland. (Jake Gaster kick). 7:39, 4Q
NC – Karl Reynolds, 77-pass from Qua Gray. (Alexis Lopez kick). 6:37, 4Q
NC – C.J. Bosket, 87-interception return. (Alexis Lopez kick) 2:45 4Q
-------
YARDSTICK……....NC………..TV
Points……………………..61……………40
Offensive Plays………..74..........70
First Downs……………..22…………..19
………By Rush……………..8............7
………By Pass……………..13..........12
………By Penalty………….1.............0
Rushes-Yards…………40-228…….30-162
Passing Yards……………388……….301
Comp-Att-Int……….20-34-1......22-40-3
Total Offense…………….616………463
Return Yards……………..372.......119
……..By Kickoff…………..7-206.....4-105
……..By Punt……………… 5-74.........0-0
……..By Interception…..3-92........1-14
………By Fumble………….0..............0-0
………By Blocked Kick….0.............0-0
Total Yardage……………..993.........582
Fumbles-Lost……………..0-0..........0-0
Punts-Average……………3-28........6-40.7
Penalty-Yardage………… 8-70..........
3rd Down Conv…………… 6-14.........4-13
4th Don Conv..............................0-1
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING – NC: Elijah Hines 15-141-2, Isaiah Robinson 15-89-0, Israel Morgan 4-15-0, Qua Gray 6-(-17)-0.
PASSING – Qua Gray 20-34-388-4-1.
RECEIVING – Jeremiah Aaron 6-126-1, Karl Reynolds 4-115-2, Quentin Lee 4-78-0, Isaiah Robinson 2-42-1, Michael Cole 2-14-0; Louis Moore 1-6-0; Zavion Taylor 1-7-0.
