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Show Rams eliminate Darts. 20-12 By G. BRETT HART SALT LAKE CITY-When two evenly matched football teams line up, it's anybody's guess which way the breaks will go, but you can bet in a dead heat, the team that gets the breaks will also be the team that ends up on the winning end of the contest. At least that's the way it went when the Highland Rams collided with the Davis Darts last night. Key Highland breaks and two costly Davis turnovers gave the Rams a narrow 20-12 victory in the 4 A quarter finals held at the University of Utah. We missed a couple of opportunities, oppor-tunities, but we didn't get too many of the breaks," said Davis coach Jim Dickson. "We knew corning into the ball game that we would have to keep their offense off the field to win, and our defense did a pretty good job of stopping them. We stop them; they fumble into the end zone and their lineman falls on it. "Tell me they're not getting the breaks. There's no justice." The Darts were able to drive within 25 yards of the goal line four different times against Highland but were only able to convert one of those drives into a touchdown. Davis' other six points came courtesy of Troy DeDecker' s powerful kicking leg. DeDecker nailed two third quarter field goals to put Davis within a point of catching cat-ching the Rams. Highland scored first with less than four minutes elapsed in the contest. Ram quarterback Joe Sheffield Shef-field kept the ball on the option and sprinted 35 yards for the touchdown. Mark Dahl ' s PAT capped a two-play, 48-yard Ram scoring drive and gave Highland a 7-0 lead. Early in second period action, Ram running back Butch Fihaki coughed up the ball at mid field, and Davis' Dustin Kynaston recovered to give Davis the ball on their own 42. The Darts proceeded to orchestrate what appeared to be a scoring drive led by quarterback Todd Heath. Davis worked its way down field, until the drive began to sputter. On fourth and one at the 10, Davis elected to go for the first down. Heath kept the ball, but the Ram defense manage to hold him half a yard short of the first. Later, with only 2:30 left in the first half, Davis recovered another Highland fumble and advanced within the Ram 20-yard line. Unfortunately Unfor-tunately for the Darts, Highland's Chris Hathaway stepped up to pick off a Heath pass at the four, stifling Davis first-half scoring hopes. The Davis defense gave the Darts another chance to score late in the third quarter. After shutting down a Highland drive deep in Ram territory, ter-ritory, Davis Roger Gardiner SEE DARTS B2 I n 1 7 itv I. i '": ' A 2 Davis' Roger Gardiner (27) blocked this Highland punt to set up the Darts' second field goal in third quarter action. H Darts CONT. FROM Bl managed to get a hand on Dahl's y. punt Hie ball came to rest just nine l' ' yards down field, and the Darts took over on the Highland 32. ( Eight plays later, Davis was fac-j fac-j , ed with fourth and 1 1 at the Ram si5h 22. Kicker Troy DeDecker hit a 35-yard 35-yard field goal to put Davis on the bT: board with 3:47 left in the third quarter. Highland led 7-3. ' Q On the ensuing kickoff, the Rams ; attempted a reverse but didn't fool Gardiner who came up with another . crucial play that eventually set up the Darts' second field goal. Gar-diner Gar-diner smashed Fihala at the Highland 15 with a textbook, open , field tackle. j . On the next play, Fihaki fumbled '' the ball, Davis' Matt Peterson (rf recovered and the Darts took over . again with excellent field position )0 on the Highland 34-yard line. ,.0 The Darts inched to the Ram 15 before the drive stalled. On fourth and 10, DeDecker nailed his second field goal from 33 yards out. The Darts had now pulled with in a point with only 39 seconds left in the third period. However, the Rams would score again only 50 seconds later. Sheffield had marched the Highland offense to the Ram 42 when third quarter action finished. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Sheffield was forced out of the pocket by the Dart defense. Electing to run the ball, he managed to break free and race 52 yards for the touchdown. Dahl's PAT hit the upright and bounced in giving Highland a 14-6 lead with 11:50 left in the game. The Darts weren't ready to give up yet Taking over on the Davis 25-yard line, the Darts marched across field in just over three minutes. Joe Warden capped off an eight-play drive with a six-yard TD run. Davis opted to go for a two-point conversion, but Heath's pass fell incomplete, in-complete, and the Darts were down by two. Highland scored once more before the game was over. Ram running back Allen Backels fumbled fumbl-ed the ball into the end zone and lineman Brad Giles managed to fall on it for the touchdown. Dahl's PAT was blocked, and the Rams held on to win the game 20-12. |