High school football: Davis cruises past Mountain Ridge in 6A second round

Knowing the Mountain Ridge team the Davis Darts had seen early in the season wouldn’t be the same as the one they’d see in the playoffs, Darts coach Scott Peery said “no stone (was) left unturned” in preparing for the second round of the 6A state tournament against the Sentinels.
“A lot of film and preparation,” Peery said. “The last two weeks of practice was a good indicator as to how we were going to play.”
Indeed, the Darts executed cleanly in every facet of the game, taking command in the first half and cruising to a 28-10 victory over No. 10 Mountain Ridge to advance to the 6A quarterfinals.
Davis junior quarterback Tradon Bessinger, while under duress from a feisty Sentinel defensive front, commanded the pocket in the first half with three touchdowns (two through the air) while completing 13 of 19 passes for 169 yards.
The uncommitted 3-star recruit finished the game completing 19 of 37 passes for 238 yards and three TDs while rushing for a fourth, and the Davis offense committed zero turnovers in a solid performance.
Defensively, the Darts put out one of their best games of the season, holding the Sentinels completely out of the end zone until they finally hit paydirt late in the fourth quarter of a long-decided game.
The Darts collected a mind-boggling 11 tackles for loss and four sacks, led by four TFLs from Cole Clark, while Bode Sparrow nabbed two interceptions.
“It was great,” junior defender Cooper Harsin said. “We just got it done on every level — offense, defense and special teams. We just got stuff done.”
The Darts’ first drive started at their own 19, but nine plays and 82 yards later, Bessenger leapt over a collapsing defense for a 4-yard TD run.
The score stayed 7-0 until the Sentinel kicker Kadin Humeniuk hit a 36-yard field goal in the second quarter to make it 7-3, though the prevention of a TD on the drive served to fire up the home team all over again.
Late in the second quarter, the Darts got just past midfield when Bessinger faked two handoffs and fired to Tyson Baggett on a shallow screen, and Baguette followed a single blocker 40 yards for the score to go up, 14-3.
Then shortly before the half ended, Bessinger led the offense on a six-play TD drive of 62 yards in just 35 seconds, capping it with a shallow out pass to Harsin.
Normally a defender, Harsin recorded his first career offensive stat with a 1-yard TD reception, sending the Darts up an imposing 21-3 at the half.
“We knew eventually at some point we were just going to do this little out with Harsin,” Peery said. “We put it in all week pre-practice, and he delivered on it for us.”
With the Darts doing their thing on defense, Bessinger and Co. engineered one more scoring drive in the third quarter, capped by a 4-yard TD run by Owen Talbot.
Mountain Ridge finally found the end zone with 1:41 remaining in the game when Bingham launched it to Grayden Dumas on a corner route to the pylon for 22 yards.
Bingham finished the game completing 21 of 36 passes for 184 yards and a TD with two picks while leading the team in rushing with 18 carries for 94 yards.
The Sentinels ended their season with a 5-6 record.
With No. 2 Skyridge eking out a win over No. 15 Riverton, Davis was assured Friday night’s game would be its last at home as the Darts will head to Skyridge for the quarterfinals next week.