No. 1 Northwest will play No. 2 Rochester
BILOXI, Miss. – The NJCAA national championship will once again be decided in the Mississippi Bowl.
No. 1 Northwest Mississippi Community College will face No. 2 Rochester Community and Technical College at 2 p.m. on Dec. 6. It will be both teams’ first visit to the bowl game.
“I know through experiences of other coaches in the MACJC that the Mississippi Bowl is one of the finest bowls in the country that represents the best league in the NJCAA,” Northwest coach Jack Wright said. “We’re looking forward to the whole experience and I’m extremely excited for our kids to be able to go down and be treated first-class. Hopefully we can meet the expectations of our league.”
“I know that it’s one of the best bowl in the country, if not the best,” Rochester coach Bill Quistorff said. “I know the Mississippi conference is the toughest conference. I know it’s a beautiful place to be and there’s some high-level football going on down there. We’re just very excited to take all that in and have a great experience.
Tickets can be purchased through the game website, MississippiBowl.com.
Northwest won the MACJC title by downing Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College 34-24. The Rangers finished the season 10-1, outscoring their opposition 398-252 (13.3 points per game).
“”I’m extremely pleased for our football program, for our school and for our community to be headed down to Biloxi to play in the Mississippi Bowl,” Wright said. “To have No. 1 vs. No. 2 playing for the national championship just solidifies where we think we belong in the bowl season.”
On the way to winning the Minnesota College Athletic Conference title, Rochester went undefeated and outscored opponents 589-175, an average of nearly 38 points a game. The Yellowjackets rallied from a 19-point fourth-quarter deficit in the state championship against North Dakota State College of Science 45-41.
“Winning our conference has been an expectation, but what we really want to do for this program is get into bowl games and win them consistently and ultimately go after an overall national championship,” Quistorff said. “That’s what we’ve been talking about as a non-scholarship school to go and compete with the highest competition in the country. We’re very blessed fort his opportunity. I think it’s a great thing for our program and it’s a great thing for our college and community.”
The Mississippi Bowl has seen the national champion crowned the last two years, with East Mississippi beating Georgia Military in 2013 and Iowa Western last year.
Past Mississippi Bowl results
2008: Gulf Coast 41, Georgia Military College 7
2009: East Mississippi 27, Arizona Western 24
2010: Gulf Coast 62, Grand Rapids 53
2011: Gulf Coast 46, Blinn 17
2012: Garden City 31, Copiah-Lincoln 29
2013: East Mississippi 52, Georgia Military College 32
2014: East Mississippi 34, Iowa Western 17
