Early on, however, it looked as if the Silverbacks had the upper hand and would cruise to an easy victory. Belnap (12-26-2-194-2) found Brock Gunter (7 receptions, 110 yards) on a quick slant for a touchdown with 10:05 on the first quarter clock to put the Silverbacks up 7-0. Then, later in the quarter, when the Silverbacks had a 4th down and 2 from the Mustang 20-yard line, the quarterback-sneaking Belnap broke through the line containment and raced in for a 20-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 14-0. A couple of drives later, however, Mustang all-star cornerback, Josh Richardson made an incredible interception of Belnap on a pass intended for Gunter and returned it 60-yards for the touchdown getting the Mustangs on the scoreboard and firing up the Mustang faithful. The Mustangs mounted a late 2nd quarter drive that was capped off with a Ron Holyhoak 1-yard run to tie the score at 14. With only minutes left in the half, Belnap took the Silverbacks down the field, connecting with tight end, B.J. Fillingame (4 receptions, 72 yards) on several occasions, including the capper from 9-yards out with less than 3 ticks left on the halftime clock to put the Silverbacks up 21-14 at halftime. Very few observers would have thought that that would be the last of the scoring for Pocatello in the game.

The only scoring opportunity in the third quarter, by either team, was a missed 42-yard field goal attempt by Belnap that sailed wide right. It wasn't until the 4th quarter when the early 4th of July fireworks began to go off. The Mustangs tied the score on the first play of the 4th quarter, after a long drive lead by all-star quarterback, Cody Jackson (14-24-1-145-0, 8 rushes, 64 yards), all-star fullback, Russell Cummins, scored on a 3-yard touchdown run. The score remained 21-21 through most of the 4th quarter with both teams enjoying some success, but unable to mount that winning drive..... until. With less than 5-1/2 minutes remaining in the game, Cody Jackson came up big. On a designed quarterback counter, Jackson faked left and broke right and outran almost every Silverback on his way to the end zone, however, Silverback Trent Sutton caught up with Jackson just inside the 10-yard line and began dragging and stripping. The ball squirted loose and into the end zone, trailing the play, alert Mustang tight end, Jeff Spencer pounced on the ball before any of several Silverbacks could get to it and scored the game-winning touchdown.

While the Silverbacks were proud to get some great performances from players like Reggie Jackson (29 carries, 130 yards), and defensive standouts, Trent Sutton, Al Covington, and Dean Byington (5-1/2 tackles each). Byington was injured midway through the third period and would not return, but perhaps the biggest injury occured early in the first period on the Silverbacks first drive, when two-way all-star lineman, 320-pound veteran, Shaun O'Hearn sustained a knee injury and was lost for the game.