Box Score
GLENDALE, Ariz.—The second ranked Snow College Badgers scored 16 points in the fourth quarter Saturday night to pull out a tough season opening road win over the Glendale Gauchos, 19 – 9, in the Western States Football League (WSFL). Sophomore running back Kalama Molisi scored twice on short runs in the final period for the Badgers, finishing with 105 yards and two touchdowns, to lead the win.
The fourth quarter outburst gave new Badger head coach Britt Maughan a win in his first outing at the helm. Maughan, who was the team's defensive coordinator the past two years, said, "Teams improve the most from week one to week two. Really what you want to do is win the first one -- you don't care how you do it."
There are only 10 bowl games played at the end of the NJCAA football season, and Saturday's match-up in Glendale featured two of last year's ten bowl winners. Snow dominated ASA in the inaugural Carrier Bowl in Syracuse, N.Y., 47-21, and Glendale defeated Mesa in the Valley of the Sun Bowl, 41-35.
On Saturday, Glendale led 7 – 3 at halftime on the strength of a seven-yard touchdown pass from Tre Grant to Braxton Nickerson early in the second quarter. The touchdown was set up by a 65-yard Grant pass to the Badger 20-yard line, the only Gaucho play of the night over 20 yards.
Each team had five possessions in the first quarter as the offenses probed and tried to figure out what would work against a couple of very strong defenses. Snow's only score of the first half came on a 27-yard first quarter field goal by sophomore Spencer Groner.
After both teams were scoreless in the third quarter, Snow finally found the spark plug it needed. That came from freshman defensive back Eric Takenaka and his punt return ability. Takenaka returned Glendale punts throughout the second half for big gains, finally positioning Snow for the first Badger TD of the season. "Eric Takenaka on our punt returns really set us up and gave us a chance to win," Maughan said.
On the second play of the final period, Molisi, who prepped at Skyline High School, scored for Snow from the two. The Badgers briefly had their first lead since the first quarter, but instead of going up by three, a botched Badger extra point was returned 90 yards by Glendale for two points, tying the score at nine.
However, Snow kept its foot on the gas and scored on its next two possessions to put the game out of reach. Spencer Groner, who had kicked a 27-yard field goal in the first quarter, added a 38-yarder on the Badgers' next possession to make it 12 – 9. Groner's go-ahead score was set up when Takenaka returned a Gaucho punt from his own 40 down the right sideline to the Glendale 25-yard line.
Snow took over on its next possession when Glendale punted away from Takenaka with the ball going out of bounds at the Snow 40. Molisi pounded the ball steadily forward, finally punching it in from the one to put Snow up by ten with 6:19 left in the game. The drive was kept alive on a big third-and-nine pass from Crosby Jensen to Davonte Maez for 27 yards and a first down at the Glendale 14.
With less than three minutes to go, Badger defensive back Stratton Brown intercepted a Glendale pass to squelch a Gaucho come back try. Snow was able to run out the clock to earn the conference win.
"Other than the one muffed extra point that gave them two points, I thought our special teams were the reason we won this game," Maughan said. "Defensively we did a good job getting three-and-outs. Other than the one big play which led to their touchdown, our defense looked good."
The Badgers could manage only 152 yards on 44 running plays as the Badger offense tried to figure out what would work. They ran consistently to the left behind freshman tackle Pat Au (6'8", 376 pounds) and guard Hunter Nettles (6'2", 288 pounds). "I was expecting more out of our run game, but it's junior college football and we've got a lot of new guys," Maughan said. "Physically our offense came along in the second half and imposed their will toward the end."
With a first-ever playoff series scheduled at the end of this season, the WSFL began with conference games in the first week. "In the past we've always had games to kind of warm up before we got into league play," said Maughan. "We had to start off against what is arguably one of the best teams in our league, and that probably has more to do with our game than anything. We were playing a good football team and we were playing them early."
Snow has its home opener on Saturday when it hosts Georgia Military in the Badgers' only non-conference game of the season. Georgia Military, a 37-21 winner over Blinn College on Saturday, handed Snow its lone defeat last year when the teams played in Georgia. The Badgers went on to finish ranked third nationally at 11-1, the loss to Georgia Military keeping Snow from getting a shot at a national championship. "We can't accomplish our goals unless we win each week," Maughan said. "Really, all we've talked about is Glendale; now we're going to focus on Georgia Military this week."
