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In a matchup of two top 25 teams the Badgers and the Scottsdale artichokes were emotionally pumped up from the very beginning. Actually, hours before the beginning. Snow College entered the game number one in the JC Gridwire and number 2 in the NJCAA while Scottsdale was the only other undefeated team in WSFL play and ranked 17th in the NJCAA.
The Badgers got on the board first with a one yard run by Matt Asiata. The extra point by Zac Manning made it 7-0, but the Artichokes answered back less than a minute later on a 63 yard pass from Joe Caskey to Nick Miller. Snow College blocked the extra point and held on to the lead a lead they would never relinquish nor have in jeopardy.
The Snow College defense held the Artichokes to just 33 yards rushing on 30 attempts and forced a key safety late in the first quarter to push the lead to 9-6. The offense added a 16 yard touchdown pass from Cade Cooper to Cameron Webb five seconds into the second quarter to make it 15-6. Two minutes later Cooper had another touchdown strike, this time to Alex Richards from 18 yards out that made it 22-6 and seemed to take the wind out of the Artichokes.
"We still have some work to do", said defensive Coordinator Justin DeCol. "We gave up some big pass plays and sometimes are in position to make the play, but don't. We'll keep working and improving."
Scottsdale had other thoughts and Donald askew made it into the endzone with 9:25 remaining in the first half. The extra point was blocked again and the Artichokes pulled to within ten points of the Badgers.
With time running out in the half Snow College had one more score from Cooper again to Richards this time from 18 yards out to make the score 29-12 at the half.
The pesky Artchokes didn't go away at the half and took the second half kick off and returned it into Badger territory. Scottsdale took advantage of the short field and scored to cut the Snow College lead back to 10 at 29-19. That was as close as they would get. The Badgers added a one yard Asiata run and a 28 yard Manning field goal to push the lead to 39-19.
The Badgers dodged some bullets fumbling the ball five times, but only losing it twice.
"We had some challenges today that I haven't seen before," said Offensive Coordinator Tyler Hughes. "I think we are normally pretty sure handed, but it seemed the ball was on the carpet a lot this afternoon. We had some good bounces and some heads up plays to keep it most of the time. They're a good team and we had to play well to beat them."
Scottsdale and Snow College each added one more score in the fourth quarter. The Artichokes scored on a four yard pass from Caskey to Alric Arnett and Cooper found Devin Frischknecht on a 20 yard pass to close out the scoring at 46-25 to keep the Badgers perfect on the season.
The Badgers finished with just under 500 yards in offense. Asiata led snow College with 86 yards, Colt Mund had 44 and the Badgers finished with 149 on the ground. Cooper led the passing attack of 333 yards and four touchdowns. Adam Frandsen finished with 94 yards receiving, Richards had 82 yards and two touchdowns, Frischknecht had 45 yards and a touchdown.
Snow College will be on the road next week to face the Gila Monsters of Eastern Arizona before returning for their last home game on the 28 of October against Arizona Western.
