The rain held off, but the Northwest Mississippi Community College Rangers did not, as a vicious passing attack destroyed the Copiah-Lincoln Community College Wolves 3-37 Thursday in the Wolves home opener.

The Rangers were ranked No. 1 in the country before a practice violation placed the team on probation and stripped the rangers of their ranking.

&uot;It’s tough to play a team that good to start off the season,&uot; Co-Lin head coach Phil Broome said. &uot;It can make you look real bad. They made us look real bad.&uot;

The Wolves didn’t do much to make themselves look good, earning 15 penalties and fumbling the ball nine times.

&uot;You can call it first game jitters if you want, but those are fundamentals,&uot;

Broome said.

Second year Co-Lin quarterback Denard Parks threw just seven completions on 17 attempts for 75 yards, with two interceptions and no touchdowns. The Wolves leading rusher, Andrew Burks, carried the ball 18 times for 76 yards.

Natchez native Barry White caught two passes for 17 yards.

Northwest quarterback Will Hall was nothing less than spectacular. Hall threw the ball 39 times and connected on 27 passes to 15 different receivers. Hall passed for 398 yards and five touchdowns.

The Wolves took an early lead with a 32-yard field goal by Matt Powers with 58 seconds left in the first quarter. The field goal was set up by a 29-yard catch by Odell Bradley.

The Rangers took over from there. Northwest took the lead with 5:40 left in the second quarter courtesy of an 8-yard Anton Paige touchdown reception.

After an interception one minute later, the Rangers scored again on a 14-yard touchdown catch by Durrell Weekly.

A 55-yard touchdown catch by Sherron Moore made the halftime score 3-20.