BRANDON — On the sideline Friday night, Vicksburg High’s cheerleaders did one push-up for every point their team scored, every time the Gators scored a touchdown. By halftime, they looked like bodybuilders. By the fourth quarter, they were ready to drop from exhaustion.

Vicksburg’s players, meanwhile, were running on a treadmill. Despite rolling up 520 yards of offense and surpassing the 40-point mark for the second consecutive week, they still couldn’t break into the win column.

Kurterrius Taylor rushed for 169 yards and four touchdowns, Terrence Brown added 95 yards and a score, and Northwest Rankin set a school record for points scored in a 76-42 victory over Vicksburg.

The 76 points was also the most ever surrendered by a Vicksburg High team. Northwest Rankin (6-0, 2-0 Region 2-6A) did not punt, had just one play result in negative yardage, and only faced two third downs in the game.

“It was the greatest feeling ever,” Taylor said of Northwest’s offensive proficiency. “We knew what we were going to do was push the ball down their throat.”

For Vicksburg (0-6, 0-2), Cameron Cooksey completed 34 of 50 passes for 372 yards and two touchdowns, and Milan Nasif caught a single-game county record 14 passes for 141 yards and a score. Namonta Gaines caught seven passes for 90 yards and a TD. Cooksey’s second consecutive 300-yard game made him only the second player in county history to have two 300-yard games in a career.

Vicksburg and Northwest Rankin combined for 985 yards of offense in the game. In the last two games, Vicksburg has scored 87 points but allowed 131.

“We’re in a zone on offense. We’ve just got to come together as one defense. You can’t win a ballgame on one side of the ball,” said VHS running back Kawayne Gaston, who ran for 82 yards and three touchdowns.

For all of the Gators’ offensive success, it was their first three drives that did them in. An interception and two fumbles — one of which was returned 38 yards for a score by Will Freeman — were turned into touchdowns by Northwest, giving the Cougars a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Gaston’s 1-yard touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter put the Gators on the board. They scored on five consecutive possessions at one point and actually outgained Northwest Rankin by 55 yards, but the early miscues continued to hang over them like a cloud. The closest Vicksburg got was 13 points, after Cooksey’s 10-yard TD pass to Gaines cut it to 55-42 with 8:01 left in the game.

“It eats at you, because it‘s miscommunication and it could’ve been avoided,” Nasif said of the early mistakes. “We just have to work on it in practice, I guess.”

Although Vicksburg was never able to make a push for the lead, the game wasn’t sealed until the final minutes. Taylor’s 9-yard TD run — his fourth of the game — gave Northwest a 62-42 lead with 5:18 to play. Two plays later, Terrell Hodges returned a Cooksey interception 42 yards for a score to make it a four-touchdown game and finally put it on ice.

“Fumbles, mental mistakes. You’re playing a team like Northwest Rankin and you can’t have many mistakes. You can’t have any mistakes,” Gaston said. “It’s frustrating. Everybody’s on the trail and sometimes you’re not on the trail. It’s all about how you overcome the situation.”