Fans of a popular steakhouse chain, situated halfway between both Prescott High School and rival Bradshaw Mountain High School, know that any satisfying bread and butter is usually flavored with a little spice.

That’s what Prescott High School senior Cervando Vega, already one of the 4A Conference’s top returners of kickoffs and punts, added with his team-leading fourth interception--a pick-six before the fans even got settled--Friday, Oct. 29, against Flagstaff.

“It was huge,” Prescott head coach Cody Collett said. “They were moving the ball early, and it was a really big play, no question.” 

Barely two minutes into the game, senior quarterback Bodie Maier had his Eagles threatening to score first, until Vega stepped in front of his pass and took it 95 yards to the house. 

“I was doing what I was told, looking at my man,” recalled Vega, who joined four other 4A defenders with four interceptions, second in the conference. “When I was on him, I looked back at the quarterback, and there it was. 

“I think that it was a big statement to them that we were ready to play and just focused in this game.”

Then the Badgers laid their bread and butter on thick, running for three scores, getting to Maier and closing off his running lanes to put them on the doorstep of their first region, section or division title since the Lou Beneitone era, 29-6.

“Flagstaff’s always tough, always competitive. We’ve done well against them,” Collett said. “We expected to play our best football against them, and I thought if we played our best football, we’d come out victorious.”

But it was Vega’s pick-six, more than even the hallowed evening air, that had a chilling effect on the Eagle passing game: one that never really thawed until there was less than 10 minutes to play, when Maier’s 25-yard pass over the top of the Badger defense finally found junior Jake Weidinger in the end zone.

“Their quarterback’s, I think, had 16 touchdown passes coming in, so we definitely were focused on that,” Prescott head coach Cody Collett said. “We felt like we could shut down their run game; we just wanted to eliminate those big plays in the pass. For the most part, we did that.”

It was a play Vega almost gave back trying to make another one happen on a punt return four minutes into the second half. The Flagstaff punt bounced directly up into his chest, bounced out of his hands, and Eagles senior Gage Betts recovered the ball at the Prescott 30.

“I was going for it, hesitated, lost it, and just rushed it over,” Vega said. “My teammates helped with that, told me to get over it.”

And he did, just two plays later, with the help of junior Caden Peña, whose second interception of Maier provided the momentum swing all his Badger teammates needed. 

A minute later, junior Cody Leopold ran 10 yards for the first of his two scores, both in the second half and both within five minutes of each other as his tough running began to wear Flagstaff down between the last four minutes of the third and the first four minutes of the fourth quarters. 

But it was also Leopold's defense that wore the Eagles down in what Collett called a “definitely great” effort by his entire unit. On his next series after the Vega pick-six, end blitzes collapsed Maier’s pocket twice, forcing Flagstaff to go three plays and out.

Then the Badgers ground out a 63-yard scoring drive in which only the first play was a pass. Everything else was handoffs out of the shotgun to Vega or junior Cian McKelvey and direct snaps to Leopold in the Wildcat formation.

With just 1:10 to play until the second quarter, McKelvey’s 13-yard run and the extra point of another junior, Cole Gross, suddenly put pressure on the Eagles to counter, down 14-0.

They could not, even out of a fake punt Leopold sniffed out. But neither could Prescott, rendering the second quarter a penalty-filled stalemate--something Vega knows they’ll have to clean up Friday, Nov. 5, if they want to beat Bradshaw Mountain. 

“Be disciplined, and not get any of those flags we got,” he emphasized. “Discipline’s a big key.”

“I think we ought to push the tempo,” Collett added. “We’ll compete, and we definitely ought to have some balance and get the ball moving.”

The rivalry game between Bradshaw and host Prescott will be for the Badgers’ first Grand Canyon Region title--the first of any kind since their back-to-back undefeated runs through the 4A Western Sky Region from 2007 through 2008.

“It’s going to be a Prescott-Bradshaw game, so it’s going to be big: we always know that,” Collett said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun, especially for a [region] title now. We’re excited to get a chance to play a Bradshaw defense that’s obviously played great football the last couple of weeks.”

In fact, since an Oct. 15 shutout loss to Lee Williams in which the only points scored were on a 42-yard field goal, the Bears have allowed their opponents to score nothing. Credit for that is, as much as anything, due to the 28 years of head coaching experience brought to bear by 1997 state champion Bob Young.  

“I probably have more respect for Coach Young than about any coach  in the state,” Collett said. “He’s a great man, and a helluva football coach.”