Badger football fights to 56-43
victory over tough Trinity Cardinals
By James Tilson
Sports writer
8-30-2018
ATHENS, TEXAS—The Snow College Badgers traveled to East Texas for the first game of the 2018 football season, and came away with the victory, albeit a somewhat closer win than they would have liked with the final score 56-43.
In Head Coach Paul Peterson’s second year, he has quickly established an explosive offense as one of Snow’s trademarks. And this game was no different.
Early on, the Badgers dominated play, taking a 24-0 lead midway through the second quarter. The Cardinals finally managed a drive in the late second quarter to put up their first points and then were able to recover a Badger fumble on Snow’s 2-yard line.
That made the score 24-14 with only 52 seconds left in the quarter. Snow was able to drive the length of the field to tack on a field goal and go in at half up 27-14.
The third quarter started out much like the first, with Snow dominating the early scoring, going up 43-22 by the end of the quarter. However, by this point, both defenses had played many snaps and were getting gassed.
Both teams traded touchdowns to push the score to 50-29, and then Trinity scored again to narrow the lead to 50-36. However, a missed receiver assignment led to a Snow interception that gave Trinity another short field, and the Cardinals were able to get within a touchdown, 50-43.
The Badgers calmly went back on the field, and marched to another score, taking nearly 7 minutes off the clock, to go up two scores, 56-43. Snow’s Leon Morgan intercepted Trinity’s last drive, and sealed the victory.
Coach Peterson praised Trinity’s talent, while noting how well the Badgers responded to adversity. “They had some really good players, and made some big plays,” he said. “We gave them some short fields by some miscues, but you have to adjust to the adversity. I think we responded well. It is easy to panic in situations like we faced, but our guys stuck together and finished strong.”
Quarterback Braxton Kerr, making his first start for the Badgers, went 25-38 for 367 yards. “He did a great job managing the offense. He played smart and didn’t force the ball. He made good decisions for our team,” said Coach Peterson.
Running back Jaylen Warren picked up where he left off last year, gaining 237 yards on 31 rushes. His stable mate, D’Armon Notoa, did not play, after breaking his foot in practice earlier in the week. Coach Peterson estimate he will miss 4-6 weeks.
The Badgers will open their 2018 home schedule by hosting the semi-pro team USA Revolution from Las Vegas, Nev. The game is on Saturday Sept. 1, with kickoff at 7 p.m.
