Heading into the game the Arizona Rattlers (3-0) despite having a zero in the loss column were still hoping to step up their play.

Head coach, Kevin Guy was less than happy previously over some reckless penalties, fumbles, dropped passes, and the play of special teams.

Coming off the bye week Rattlers looked to change that narrative against the 0-3 Northern Arizona Wranglers. 

On the first drive of the game Wranglers quarterback C.J Fowler fired a pass over the middle that got picked off by Omari Alexander.

Three plays later Rattlers running back Shannon Brooks ran it in from 1 yard out, for his first rushing touchdown back from injury to make it 7-0 Rattlers.

“It’s a blessing man, I’ve been waiting months to get back out there,” Brooks said.

Directly after, Wranglers kick returner David Elder took a kickoff return to the house, making it the third touchdown Rattlers special teams has given up in the last two games, tying the game at 7.

“We got some work to do on our kickoff team this is happening too much,” Guy said.

From there, both teams would exchange touchdowns for the next 5 drives, giving the Rattlers a 28-20 lead with 7:10 left in the half. 

The Rattlers would finally stop the back-and-forth trend, with a huge fourth down goal line stop, giving them the ball with a minute left to try to go down and score. 

The Rattlers one-minute drill effort would be successful, ending their drive with a Dalton Sneed 3-yard touchdown run, to put the Rattlers up 35-20 at half.

The Rattlers would start off the second half hot, when quarterback Dalton Sneed ran it in from 2 yards out for his second touchdown of the game, making it 42-20.

The rest of the second half the Rattlers were able to coast, neither offense was able to produce anything for the rest of the 3rd. 

The Rattlers gave Sneed some rest in the 4th, putting in backup Drew Powell. 

Towards the end of the game, Powell found Shannon Brooks in the endzone to make it 49-20, with a minute left—Rattlers stay undefeated.

Rattlers secured the win thanks to a stout performance from their defense, shutting out the Wranglers in the second half.

“That’s impressive especially in this game, when you have a defense that does that! I mean you’re hoping that your defense gets one or two stops in a half, for them to shut them out in the second half, hats off to them,” Rattlers QB Dalton Sneed said. 

The Rattlers (4-0) take their undefeated record to Tucson next week to play the Sugar Skulls.