At the end of an extended epic heavyweight bout, with milestones to spare, Friday, Oct. 15, in chilly Flagstaff, Cody Collett provided the inspiration, while Cody Leopold provided the perspiration.

The head football coach for sixth-ranked Prescott, returning to action for the first time since suffering a heart attack Sept. 10, called his junior running back’s number 32 times for 130 yards rushing and two scores, including the game-winning touchdown in overtime, to hand third-ranked Coconino its first regional loss in more than three years, 34-28.  

“We’ve had some great wins--I don’t want to disrespect any of our great players,” said Collett following his 50th career victory in his second stint as a Badger head coach since 2012. “But, in my time at Prescott, definitely the best win we’ve had here.” 

Prescott’s team effort eventually overcame a superlative individual night by Coconino junior Cooper French, who ran for 212 yards and all four Panther touchdowns on just two fewer rushes than Leopold.

“This guy busted his ass, pardon my language,” Collett said of Leopold, who “absolutely left it all out there on the field. I can’t say enough about this win and how proud I am.”

But it was French who landed the first punch less than two minutes into the contest, immediately after the Badgers went three-and-out, and on his team's first offensive play from scrimmage. After he sliced through the Prescott line from 54 yards, then ran in, standing up, a two-point conversion with similar ease, it could have been a very long night from that point for the Badgers [5-1], who had more than two weeks to bounce back from their first loss, at home to 3A Blue Ridge.

“We slipped up a couple weeks ago,” said Collett, who helped call plays and direct his assistant coaches from a seat in the Cromer Field press box. “These guys have been battling all year. No rest for the weary.”

Head coach Mike Lapsley, on the other hand, minus senior running back Jonathan Jaramillo, had just six days to prepare for Prescott, just Coconino’s [3-1] fourth game of the season due to multiple early-season COVID-19 cancellations.

But Collett adjusted, shifting junior quarterback Alex Vaughan out of the pocket on certain plays in favor of direct snaps to backs like Leopold, who converted multiple third down situations in that Wildcat formation as well as on traditional handoffs in a 12-play, 75-yard drive that took nearly four-and-a-half minutes. 

“Since last year, [the Wildcat has] worked for us,” Leopold said. “We’ve been practicing it for years. We came back to it this year, and it’s still working. So we’re going to stay in it. It makes us successful.”

Vaughan’s first completion of the night, to junior Jake Wright from 9 yards out, got the Badgers on the board but still down, 8-7, after Collett elected to kick the extra point.

After being forced into a three-and-out, Coconino would recover a Prescott fumble, with sophomore Enoch Watson scooping up the loose ball from Leopold at midfield. Eight plays later, dragging tacklers all the way, French busted in his second score from the Prescott 4 with 41 seconds to play in the opening period. 

Junior Jacob Clouse could not convert his two-point attempt, however, and it took Leopold just 2:40 to atone for his turnover and tie the game, converting a 4th-down-and-1 situation at Coconino’s six before taking it in three more yards.

Through halftime, until nearly halfway through the third quarter, the Prescott defense began neutralizing Watson’s passing while the Panthers’ D forced another fumble to kill a Prescott drive.

The Badgers, with favorable field position on their own 47 their first drive of the second half, looked to Leopold to carry more of the load, Wildcatting his way inside the Coconino 10. Then Collett mixed it up again, on a third-and-eight, calling on junior Cian McKelvey to take the direct snap. Coconino wasn’t ready for him, and McKelvey powered his way off left guard into the end zone for Prescott’s first lead, 20-14, with 6:47 in the third quarter.

A missed extra point by junior kicker Cole Gross loomed large, however, when French took the kickoff to his own 27, then carried the ball for seven of Coconino’s next 10 plays. Nearly five minutes later, freshman Josemiguel Villanueva converted his extra point, and the Panthers were back in front by a point.

“I wrote on my paper, ‘You have a family,’” said Collett, who hopes doctors can successfully install a third coronary stent, then allow him to be back on the Badger sidelines Friday, Oct. 22, against 10th-ranked 4A non-region opponent Mesquite. “And ‘God is in control.’ That’s what I used to ground myself.”

After Prescott missed an opportunity to recover a fumble on a punt return, senior Cervando Vega injected life into the Badgers entering the fourth quarter. He returned a Watson punt 22 yards to nearly midfield, then later tore off another 13-yard gain before bouncing around right end on the ninth play of the drive and refusing to go down until he was in the end zone 20 yards later.

This time, Collett played to win, and Leopold obliged, breaking the goal-line plane--then nearly himself, after the two-point conversion run--to make it 28-21 with under six minutes to play.

“It feels so special, after last year, playing these guys,” said Leopold, who got shut out at home by the Panthers in his third game last season. “Funnest game of my life.”

But French was not done. Abetted by Watson’s only pass completion for positive yards--a juggling 10-yard reception by senior Andy Ruiz--French advanced from his own 28 to the Prescott 20. His 14-yard tear on third down and five set up a first and goal from the 6, where he could not be stopped.

Still, there was 2:29 to play in regulation. Plenty of time for Collett to mount a final drive for a touchdown or Gross field goal attempt, particularly after Vaughan’s backward lateral to junior Ryan Smith resulted in a halfback-option pass 30 yards downfield to wide-open senior Ryder Thornbury.

“This moment...not anybody can buy this feeling. There is not enough money on this planet to buy this feeling right now, for free,” Collett said following the win. “When a bunch of guys work together for a common goal, there is no greater feeling in team sports, and there is no greater sport in the world than football.”

But Prescott’s euphoria in regulation was short-lived, as Coconino’s defense pushed Leopold backward three yards before forcing another fumble at its 27, recovered by Ruiz. But the Panthers could only advance 10 yards in their final three plays of regulation, ushering in overtime.

There, it was the Badgers defense that stepped up. With each team getting a chance to score in the red zone, Gross stuffed both French and senior Gabriel Collado on running plays, forcing an end zone pass from Watson that Ruiz caught out of bounds. Villanueva’s attempt to salvage three points, on a 35-yard field goal attempt, fell just short.

The rest was Leopold, the Wildcat formation and pandemonium for Prescott after he took the direct snap into the end zone from a yard out on third down.

“We’ve been looking forward to playing Coconino for weeks now,” Leopold said. “To win this game, in overtime, makes the feeling so special, there’s no feeling in the world like it.”