Photo: 21 Adam Lloyd and 49 Cooper Kasun celebrate Lloyd’s first touchdown of the 2024 season
Prescott Badgers (1-0) at Thunderbird Titans (1-0), 7 pm
The Prescott Badgers will take their first big test of the season when they travel to Phoenix to play the Thunderbird Titans.
Last week, Thunderbird opened up a 27-0 halftime lead and won 34-0 over Moon Valley, just like they did to start the season a year ago. Senior quarterback Andrew Cohill completed 50% of his passes for 104 yards and a touchdown. Another senior, Elijah Little, who rushed for 144 yards with an average of 8.5 yards per carry, scored two touchdowns. Both players were thorns in the Badgers side last year. Prescott will need to keep a block on defensive star Ryan Kavalami, who returned for his senior season with a ten tackle performance.
In their first game, the Badgers blew La Joya Community out and back to Avondale in the first half ultimately winning 56-7. A record setting 42 point first quarter is still something you had to see to believe. Tonight’s game will definitely be much different.
Both the offense and defense saw limited action due to the score, but coach Cody Collett had to like what he saw from his first stringers. Quarterback Uriah Tenette looked sharp in completing two long touchdown passes. Johann Gundermann caught one of those long touchdown passes and made all eight of his extra point attempts, plus eight of his nine kickoffs went for touchbacks. Josiah Peoples is another receiving weapon for Tenette with a TD reception, and also has the potential to return a punt for a touchdown, like he did last week. Adam Lloyd had a pair of rushing touchdowns and will surely see more carries in this one. The defense also played lights out holding La Joya Community to just 72 total yards. Most of that came in the second half. Some of the impact players seeing first half action on defense were Gunnar Parra, Brody Hanna, Ethan Groh, Cooper Kasun, Adam Lloyd, and Wyatt Pierce. The line, anchored by a pair of big sophomores, Beau Brice and Blake Mcglory, both listed at 6-5, 300lbs, will be counted upon to give Tenette and company time to get the ball up field.
Last season the Badgers fell to the Titans 50-30 on Bill Shepard Field. Elijah Little led the game in rushing with 149 yards of the 268 total ground yards in the game. Passing saw QB Andrew Cohill complete eight of ten for 191 yards, and a pair of touchdowns. Last year the Prescott defense struggled to stop Thunderbird. Look for a much closer contest tonight with the matchups being better than they were a year ago. A Badger win is doable and certainly not out of the question.
Bradshaw Mountain Bears (0-1) at Canyon Del Oro Dorado (0-1), 7 pm
Both of these teams come into this one winless, but one team will end that tonight. Last week Bradshaw Mountain lost 47-27 at Snowflake while Canyon Del Oro lost at Eastmark 12-3.
Michael Sanford saw his first action for the Bears at quarterback and completed eight passes for 83 yards and a touchdown. Dylyn Garrett led the ground attack with 64 yards and a TD. Brayden Munday was held to just 20 yards on five carries. Desmond Tolbert caught four passes for 55 yards and the only through the air touchdown.
Canyon Del Oro is keeping on the down low with no stats visible. Last season the Dorado beat the Bears 42-7 in Prescott Valley.
The Bears were able to get some offense generated late in last weeks game to gain some confidence. Meanwhile Canyon Del Oro should in no way be taken lightly and will be looking to score their first touchdown of 2024. If Bradshaw Mountain can take a page out of the Eastmark”s defensive plan, then look for this game to stay close.
Bourgade Catholic Golden Eagles (0-1) at Chino Valley Cougars (1-1), 7 pm
The Cougars put a very good game together last week with a 54-0 win over Kingman Academy. Meanwhile Bourgade Catholic was shutout at Fountain Hills 31-0.
Look for Chino Valley to get their second win in consecutive weeks. The Cougars built some much needed confidence last week and made some great adjustments from their opening loss at Page.
Last year Chino Valley won 23-2 in Phoenix.
