PRESCOTT — Senior Brody Hanna had four touchdowns and an interception, Bryce Coston added a score and Prescott opened the 2026 season with a bang in a 34-0 victory over Greenway on Friday night.

It is the first win for the Badgers (1-0, 0-0 4A Grand Canyon) since last year’s season ended with four losses in their last five games as they missed the playoffs all together for only the second time (2023) in five years.

Despite the game ending with more than 9 minutes to play due to several injuries by Greenway personnel, Prescott was unable to take advantage of a few miscues by the Demons (0-1, 0-0 4A Black Canyon) in the first half, otherwise the score might have been a lot worse.

After a Coston 11-yard touchdown run, Cougan Smith picked off Aiden Fernandez with 4:28 to play in the first quarter. Later, Aaron Butler recovered a fumble, then Hanna recorded his first interception of the season with 5:18 left in the first half with Prescott still up 7-0.

Hanna scored with 27 seconds left in the first half to send the Badgers into the locker room with a 14-0 lead.

“I like defense more, I like hitting people, but offensively I’m finding my groove,” said Hanna, who has played mostly defense his entire youth career.

In the second half, Hanna scored on a 6-yard run to make it 20-0 with 7:58 to play in the third quarter, then Prescott recovered another fumble by Greenway, only to see Hanna cross the goal line again to make it 27-0 and the Badgers never looked back.

Prescott used three quarterbacks on Friday night, but coach Cody Collett says that is by design and not necessarily out of necessity.

“All of them have different skillsets to offer. If it was any other position, people would not say anything twice about rotating it, but because it is quarterback, people get a little weird about it,” Collett said.

“Bryce [Coston] can get on the edge and throw the ball. James [Hefferin] has precision with his passes. And Brody [Hanna] is the bruiser who can run inside the tackles. Both the other quarterbacks are fast, but I don’t know if they can run inside the tackles like Brody does,” Collett added.

It appears Coston and Hefferin may get most of the snaps under center, but Hanna’ skillset to run between the tackles can’t be ignored.

“I have a few plays on the band, they are colored for me, so I don’t forget. Coach makes it easier for me,” Hanna said.

2026 OUTLOOK

The Badgers return several offensive linemen this fall, but Collett’s plan is to play as many kids as possible to start the season.

“We don’t have a whole lot of guys outside of Brody who are playing both ways. So, we’re trying to let that help us wear teams down, because guys play half the snaps of the other guys,” Collett said. “That’s unusual at the 4A level, but I feel like we are deep enough right now. It’s a long season. We had some guys get banged up tonight so we’ll see if that will continue. We haven’t done it in the past, so that’s a little bit different.”

The Badgers will find out soon enough if that strategy will work as they are about to play a tough stretch of games starting in Week 2 at Thunderbird, who beat Moon Valley 47-0 to open the season Friday night.

In Week 3, Prescott travels to Northwest Christian, then comes home to play Lee Williams to open 4A Grand Canyon region play. The Volunteers beat Prescott 29-3 last season and barely missed the state playoffs.

After a road trip to Mingus on Sept. 25, Prescott returns home to play Mohave (Oct. 2), Coconino (Oct. 9), then heads to Flagstaff (Oct. 15) before wrapping up the season with a home game against Younger (Oct. 23) and a road trip to rival Bradshaw Mountain (Oct. 29).

Brian M. Bergner Jr. has covered professional, collegiate and high school sports for more than 20 years. Follow him on X at @AzPreps365Brian or on Facebook at @Five2MediaWorks. Have a story idea? Email Brian at bbergner@azpreps365.com.