For Snowflake, practicing on Thanksgiving and doing pushups after a game aren’t punishments.

They are rewards for punching its ticket to the Division IV state championship football game. Coach Ron Tenney dropped down and gladly did 20 pushups on Paradise Valley’s field along with his team Saturday to celebrate clinching its state championship berth, its first since 1993.

Beating Seton Catholic 33-20 also allowed Tenney and his boys to keep practicing, including on Thanksgiving, two days before they meet River Valley at North Canyon High in the D-IV title game.

“For our program, it’s been a lot of years since we’ve been at this stage,” Tenney said. “It’s been a long time coming. The community and the whole school up there have been behind us all year as you can see tonight with our crowd.”  

Snowflake couldn’t have scripted a better start to each half in the game.

It scored during its first two drives in each half, allowing it to take 14-0 and 33-14 leads. As for its defense, Snowflake stuffed Seton Catholic in the second half, forcing Seton Catholic to turn the ball over on downs three times and throw two interceptions.

Snowflake also sacked Seton Catholic’s talented quarterback, Zach Wade, five times in the second half. The 20 points Seton Catholic scored were a season low. 

Tenney’s ground and pound attack also battered Seton Catholic behind the very quick Drew Schneider.

Schneider scored three touchdowns on runs of 48, 18 and 50 yards.

“I think we tried to prove a point and show that we could run it on these guys and then throw a pass to keep them humble,” Schneider said.

Seton Catholic had success throwing the deep ball early to help it tie the game at 14 with 10:36 remaining in the first half.  

But on Snowflake’s next drive, a facemask infraction on Seton Catholic during a 3^rd and 27 screen pass play allowed Snowflake to continue a drive and eventually score. Snowflake went up 21-14 after a short touchdown run by Porter Black and never relinquished the lead during the remainder of the game.

Seton Catholic, the No. 1 seed in the D-IV state tournamened, finished the season with a 12-1 record. No. 4 seeded Snowflake improved its record to 12-1.