Daniel Fraenkel is an NAU School of Communication student assigned to cover high school football for AZPreps365.com

Coming into this game, the Flagstaff Eagles knew they had their work cut out for them. Being 0-7 and facing the top team in the region, the 7-0 Prescott Badgers, this was of course viewed as an uneven match between the two teams, and through the first quarter it seemed like just that. 

In the first 12 minutes of play, Flagstaff was unable to muster up any sort of offense, punting on both of their first two drives. Meanwhile, Prescott made sure to set the tone early and do the opposite, scoring a touchdown on their first two opportunities, going up 14-0 and not showing even a wrinkle on either side of the ball. 

This was all but unexpected for Prescott head coach Cody Collett. When asked about his gameplan to start out the matchup, he said, “We wanted to make sure to establish the run game and make some big plays early.”

Clearly this worked well for the Badgers as they were able to keep their foot on the gas and score a rushing touchdown in every one of their offensive drives except their last when the game was already far out of reach for the Eagles. 

While an offensive output like this is impressive in any fashion, the way the Badgers spread the wealth was a testament to the culture Collett has helped build at the school.

Aside from sophomore quarterback Bryce Coston, who ran in two touchdowns himself, Collett made sure all of his offense got to feast. Senior running back Brody Hanna also ran in two touchdowns, then senior running back Braylon Johnson and sophomore running back 
Jeremyah Villanueva ran in three scores a piece. 

Obviously energy was a huge factor in this game, and Coston agreed, claiming, “We had four guys score touchdowns, just spreading it out and doing a great job with that was awesome.”

Throughout most of the game, Flagstaff was able to match Prescott, scoring touchdowns on almost all of their drives in the second and third quarters of play to keep the game within striking distance.

Flagstaff’s starting quarterback, junior Broden Custer completed 25 of 62 passes for 327 yards and three scores, and added 109 yards on the ground, as well running in another three touchdowns himself. 

However, despite these efforts, Prescott pulled away in the end shutting down their offense in the fourth quarter to move to 8-0 on their year and keeping the Eagles winless at 0-8.

When asked if there was anything to clean up going into next week’s matchup, Collett said, “We got to do a better job at staying regulated, got to try to prevent those big plays from happening.”

Prescott will go back home to host Youngker on Oct. 23 in an attempt to remain undefeated, while Flagstaff will travel to Mingus trying to collect its first win.