Bowl bound

Arizona Western football head coach Tom Minnick only had one word to describe the Gatorade bath he received as the final minute of Saturday's game against Snow ticked off the clock.
 
"Cold," he said.
 
Thanks to the Matadors' 30-17 win over No. 4 Snow College at Veterans Memorial Stadium, chilly weather is likely on AWC's horizon when it makes its first bowl game appearance in 11 years. But for the rest of the AWC players and coaches, the feelings of capturing a conference championship were as warm and fuzzy as they come.
 
"We're 9-1, we're about to go to a bowl game. It just feels great. I'm loving this," said AWC linebacker Tyreese Williams, who forced a fumble on the opening kickoff and intercepted a pass late in the game. "We've been here since Aug. 5 and even before that in the offseason working hard and practicing in 115-degree weather every day. We played like a team today, and this is a dream come true."
 
No. 7 Arizona Western's defense held Snow to less than 100 yards of offense in the second half, and the Matadors converted five Badger turnovers into 20 points to win their first Western States Football League title in the program's history and their first regular season title of any kind since 1981.

"You got a team ranked fourth and a team ranked seventh, it's going to be a battle for four quarters. That's just how it is, especially for a championship," AWC running back Reggie Bullock said. "We have the No. 1 defense, and they're plain out good. Thumbs up to them. They helped us out with this win."
 
AWC (9-1, 7-1 WSFL) will likely learn its postseason destination early this week. Minnick said they are possible candidates for bowl games located in Texas, Mississippi and Kansas.
 
"We'll have to wait and see who we go play, but I know it's going to be somebody good," Minnick said. "I've seen a lot of them on film already and there are some pretty good teams out there, but we're pretty good too."
 
The showdown for supremacy in the WSFL lived up to its billing as a championship matchup pitting two top-10 teams against each other for the second time this season. And despite three turnovers of their own, the Matadors came out on top for the second time this season.
 
"Western's a good defensive team. That's what they've been relying on all year just like we have," Snow coach Steve Coburn said. "It was two defensive battles. We had too many turnovers and didn't sustain drives like we needed to sustain drives."
 
The game also featured the top two offensive players in the conference, both of whom directly impacted the outcome late in the game. Bullock, who sat out the last two games with injuries, broke out in the second half and rushed for 115 yards and two fourth-quarter touchdowns.
 
"It's been stressful for me because I wanted to play, but I just had to let the other players do what they do and get myself ready for this game," he said.
 
Snow quarterback Quinn Mecham was 19 of 36 for 164 yards and two touchdowns, but was picked off three times in the second half. The Badgers' offense watched from the sidelines as their 10-7 halftime lead faded away, failing to pick up a first down in each of their first four drives of the second half.
 
"We play well against him," Minnick said of Mecham. "In other games he throws the ball all over the place, but we put pressure on that kid and he couldn't do anything. I'm going to fight to make sure I get Reggie as the No. 1 player in the league hopefully 'cause he was better out here today. Head-to-head, he wins the battle."
 
AWC's offense was unable to get anything going in the first half for the second week in a row, relying on a 36-yard fumble return by Tristian Simms on the opening kickoff for their only points. Quarterback Brandon Gorsuch fumbled the ball twice on both sides of the 20, Othello Kossigbo missed a 37-yard field goal and Bullock was held to 21 yards on eight carries.
 
"As a quarterback you gotta have a short-term memory," Gorsuch said. "Those things happen and it's tough, but it's over and done with and you gotta forget about it and move on to the next play."
 
The Matadors began to pick up steam in the second half behind Bullock and a trio of trick plays that opened up the rest of the field. Bullock had a 38-yard reception and threw a 20-yard pass to Ge'shun Harris on a drive that set up the first of Kossigbo's three field goals to tie the game at 10-10.
 
"We were prepared to stop their base stuff, and we did, and they had to go to trick plays and they got us on those," Coburn said. "Reggie scored a couple touchdowns from one yard away, but there's nothing Reggie did that we couldn't handle."
 
AWC took the lead on their next drive with another field goal and led 20-10 early in the fourth. But Mecham and Mazi Ogbanna paired up for their second touchdown pass-and-catch of the day, and Snow kept it a one-possession game by holding the Matadors to a field goal after Williams intercepted the ball and returned it to the Badger 6-yard line.
 
"We watched a lot of film and practiced and we knew what they were going to do," Williams said. "Coach (Jerry Dominguez) had us very well prepared, and we did it. The thing was getting to the quarterback with a lot of blitzing and a lot of pressure and putting him on the deck as much as possible."
 
Snow, starting at the AWC 38, moved inside the red zone and threatened to score with less than 2 minutes to play. But Mecham's pass on 3rd-and-13 was tipped and fell into the arms of Jordan Sklba, who returned it 80 yards and set up the final score of the night, a 3-yard run by Bullock.
 
Snow (9-2, 7-1), which had not lost a league game in its last 24 attempts and claimed a share of the WSFL title two weeks ago after beating Scottsdale, will play in the Zions Bank Top of the Mountain Bowl on Dec. 5.