Box Score EPHRAIM -- The weatherman was right on the money when he said it would rain between one and two inches on Saturday when the Phoenix Bears came calling on the Snow College Badgers in a Western States Football League tilt. The rain held off for the first two quarters as Snow built a 21-6 lead, but as homecoming halftime activities commenced the skies opened up and poured rain the rest of the way with the Badgers pushing the final score to 42-6 before the game was called five minutes before its scheduled finish due to the weather.

Snow scored quickly on the game's opening possession with Alex Kuresa finding wide receiver Jonah Trinnaman in the end zone for a 37-yard score just over a minute into the game. The Badgers would not score again until just a minute into the second quarter when Kuresa hit tight end Tui Satuala for an 11-yard score.

The Bears made it interesting on their next possession as they drove 75 yards in eight plays with A.J. Thigpen finding Israel Simpson open on a 20-yard scoring pass to make it 14-6 with the Badgers blocking the extra point attempt. It stayed a one-score differential until Kuresa threw his third TD pass of the half with only three seconds remaining, hitting Arlonzo Simpson from 22 yards out for Simpson's fifth TD reception of the season to make the score 21-6 at the half.

Then the rains came and the rest of the game was played in a steady downpour. With 4:50 remaining in the fourth quarter, lightning struck just a mile east of Badger Stadium and play was delayed and eventually stopped 40 minutes later as the lightning refused to subside.

Phoenix looked like it had some life left coming out of the locker room into the downpour when they took the second half kickoff and drove to the Snow 23-yard line. But Snow's Tavian Lott took any remaining life out of the Bears as he intercepted a Thigpen pass at the 11 and returned it 89 yards for a score to make it 28-6 for the Badgers.

From there Snow turned it into a ground game with Stephen Shepard scoring from 29 yards out in the third quarter and from 15 yards in the fourth to make the final 42-6 for the Badgers. Shepard had his best day as a Badger as he finished with a game-high 66 yards on six carries and two touchdowns and added a reception for 13 yards.

Kuresa also had arguably his best game as a Badger, completing 23 of 29 passes for 273 yards and three touchdowns and no interceptions. Trinnaman finished with three catches for 58 yards and a score, and retro-sophomore Eric Takenaka led the Badgers with four receptions netting 34 yards on offense to go along with his four tackles on defense with an interception which he returned for 41 yards. 

Lott finished with five tackles to tie defensive lineman Mark Ata for the team lead -- Ata's tackles including a pair of sacks to raise his team-leading total to 4.5 sacks on the season. The Badgers hounded three Bear quarterbacks all day racking up 20 quarterback hurries led by Ata's three, and made the Bear running game non-existent as they finished with minus-16 yards rushing. The Bears' Jamir Moore led all tacklers in the game with 11 takedowns.

This week the 4-1 Badgers face the 2-4 Broncos of New Mexico Military as they travel to Roswell, N.M., always a tough place for visitors. Phoenix (0-5) will try to get a win as they host Eastern Arizona (2-3). Arizona Western (5-1) maintained a half-game lead over Snow and Scottsdale (4-1) with a 49-13 win over Pima. Arizona Western has a tough couple weeks to close out regular season play, hosting Glendale (3-2) this Saturday and then travelling to Mesa (3-3).