It would be perfectly understandable if Vicksburg quarterback Cameron Cooksey needed to have his right arm in a sling after Friday night’s record-smashing performance against Northwest Rankin.

He threw a single-game Warren County record 68 passes, 48 of them going for completions. He finished with 535 yards, another single-game record and a record-tying six touchdowns in a performance that had the stat guys crunching their calculators just trying to keep up.

What might be missed in the avalanche of numbers was how good of a throw Cooksey made to give the Gators (2-4, 0-2 Region 2-6A) a chance at overtime against Northwest Rankin. Down 42-34, with nine seconds left and the Gators 45 yards away, the only option left was to go to the end zone.

Cooksey uncorked a throw for the ages.

Instead of a lofting rainbow, Cooksey threw a 50-yard ball like a string on a straight line. The pass zipped between two Northwest Rankin defenders and right to a diving A.J. Stamps for a touchdown to make it 42-40 with one second to spare.

“Yeah, that was an amazing catch by A.J.,” Cooksey said about his teammate, who also smashed the Warren County single-game records for catches, receiving yards and touchdown catches in a game. Stamps finished with 20 receptions for 302 yards and five touchdowns.

Still needing a two-point conversion to force overtime, Cooksey’s last pass fell incomplete and Northwest Rankin (6-0, 2-0) escaped Memorial Stadium with a 42-40 win.

“I looked for A.J. and they had it covered well,” Cooksey said. “Went over to Lamar (Anthony) and there wasn’t much there and we missed it.”

Had the Gators tied it, Cooksey said he was pumped to keep on going.

“My arm doesn’t feel too bad,” Cooksey said. “It might be sore tomorrow, but right now it feels fine.”

The loss aside, Vicksburg showed again it can be an offensive powerhouse against a quality opponent. That couldn’t be said about last week, when the Gators struggled in a 46-6 loss to Jim Hill in Jackson.

The Gators made an adjustment with their passing game for Northwest. Instead waiting for seam routes to clear, Cooksey got the ball out quickly to Anthony in the flats. That resulted in what would have been a single-game receptions record for Anthony with 15, but Stamps eclipsed him in the same game.

“Tonight, we were almost 100 percent there with our offense,” Cooksey said. “We still made a couple of mistakes.”

Only one time did the Cougars’ pass rush get to Cooksey and the result was a tipped pass for an interception. The pick came after four straight completions that moved the ball from the Gators 2 to the 41. Northwest capitalized with Ramone Nash’s 6-yard TD run for a 42-27 lead. Nash would end with 298 yards and three touchdowns. Northwest Rankin coach Pete Hurt knew how big the early fourth-quarter score was.

“As bad as we were tackling on defense, we still were able to make it a two-score game right there until the end,” Hurt said. “But give Vicksburg credit. I knew they would come back from that game with Jim Hill.”

Cooksey said the Gators brought right mental state to the game.

“We had the right mindset tonight,” he said. “What we have to do now, is bring that same mindset for every opponent.”