COTTONWOOD — Jon’te Jones ran for more than 100 yards and three touchdowns, quarterback Taye Evans tossed five scores and No. 5-ranked Bradshaw Mountain had no problems with Mingus in a 63-0 shutout victory Friday night.

The Bears (3-1, 1-0 4A Grand Canyon) were determined to bounce back from a difficult 17-10 loss to No. 1-ranked Snowflake a week ago, and it showed.

“With our team, we have a mentality with what we call ‘The Standard’ … We don’t play down to our opponents’ levels and coach has been preaching it before our first game, ‘Be the Standard,’ And we’ve been living up to that ever since,” Jones said. “We aren’t there yet though.”

Jones started the night off with a bang, running 76 yards on Bradshaw Mountain’s first offensive play of the game to put them up 7-0.

Jones again broke away from the Marauders defense for a 60-yard sprint to make it 21-0 Bears with 58 ticks left in the first quarter. The senior back made it 35-0 with 3:40 to play in the first half with a 1-yard run to put away Mingus for good.

Evans, who was still slinging it all over the field even after Bradshaw Mountain was up big in the final minutes of the fourth quarter, said upcoming opponents need to beware.

“After that Snowflake loss, we are going to go on a run. We are going to give nothing but our best at all the times,” Evans said. “There’s no doubt in my mind we can go all the way; we’ll keep working.”

Evans connected with Andrew Van Dell for two touchdown passes in the first half, then he found Caden Dabney, Levi Baker and Treyton Rudolph in the second half to give him five touchdown passes on the evening.

Bradshaw Mountain played stellar defense, which was highlighted by a Brody Bryant interception and subsequent 40-yard return for a touchdown making it 42-0 with 2:18 to play in the second quarter.

Coach Bob Young said with teenage kids, you never know from week to week what will happen, but Friday night was important for their confidence after a tough loss to Snowflake.

“We preached all week about no let down. You have such a big game with Snowflake, then you play a team that’s struggling,” Young said. “I was proud of the kids for the way they played. They bounced back in a big way.”

Young said they’ll need to keep getting better every week if they want to make a run in November, especially after a difficult 31-14 loss to Coconino in the second round of state a season ago.

“We have a chip on our shoulder from losing that [second] round to Coconino last year. I’ve got a lot of guys who really want to get back in the playoffs and make some noise,” Young said.

UP NEXT

Next week, Mingus (0-3, 0-1 4A Grand Canyon) hosts a No. 7 Prescott team that is now 4-0 after a 41-14 rout over Lee Williams, who was No. 6 prior to tonight’s loss. Kickoff on Sept. 25 is set for 7 p.m.

Bradshaw Mountain should have a rather easy path to the playoffs moving forward except for the season finale against cross-town rival Prescott on Oct. 29.

The Bears play Mohave, Flagstaff, Lee Williams, Buckeye Union and Coconino prior to that, all of which are winnable games for Young’s group, which means Bradshaw Mountain could be 8-1 heading into a potentially undefeated Badger den to end the season.

Kickoff against Mohave is set for Sept. 24 at 7 p.m.

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