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Show j The Pigsk; - As Sport.' vo" iV. ts Shelved udoors all excitement Just as sc ui as the toe action oves indoors for roundball. i . un basketball begins Wednesday for most teams. subsides, e Omty Loss Is The Tom By KEITH DUNCAN Journal Sports SALT LAKE CITY - An inspiring pregame discourse by Davis Ward Swwley was quite enough to prick the hearts of his state championship hopeful club, but it did nothing to quench the Alta Hawks massive front line's desire to gobble up the Dart offense. -- AND IN THE end, the bigger Hawks found themselves on the favorable end of a 19-- 7 score and victors in the 1983 State championship. For those who heard Sawleys e inspirational, theyd have to agree it rivaled the feeling most felt when Neil Armstrong touched foot on the moon or Rocky Balboas conquest of Appcllo. 4-- A three-minu- te pre-gam- THE BOTTOM-LINof Sawleys delivery was singular in purpose, that of inspiring his players, whether win or lose, to walk away from the title game with their conscience clear of a job exploited with everything they had. And although Alta cheered and Davis wept in the end, Sawley held his emotionally-draine- d body straight and said, The kids did as much as they could do and prepared for Alta as hard as they could prepare. E THE DIFFERENCE of course, was a strong-arme- d Hawk defense with people stacked in front averaging 3 and 230 pounds, the same story of the past two years these two clubs have met in the prep playoffs. And according to Sawley the Alta linemen were not only big again, but good too. Everytime we tried to get something moving, theyd bnng everyone at us and make it miserable, said Sawley. He continued, Someday Id like to play them on an equal basis, with the same kind of sized people. With the kind of personnel they had, they simply just out horsed us. 6-- wf S f- M u pi t rr . i x, ,, tu : ?- v 7 ' 1 v. r .. mu I r BUT MY COMPLIMENTS go out to Alta. They deserve to be the state champions. They prepared for us, no question about it, the Davis coach continued to say. And just as the coach respected the Alta club, so did the players. Ryan Smith, held to less than 30 yards rushing, commented, They had everyone coming at us on defense, it was tough. If you could pop through, you could get some yardage, but as we found out, it wasnt easy getting through. TO START the game, Davis sent a line-u- p in minus their brilliant lineman, Jeff Sampson. After suffering a blow to his thigh in the second quarter of the Hillcrest game, Sampson suffered through a week of pain and the agony of knowing he probably wouldnt play in the state championship finale against Alta. Without him, Davis actually Fst a starter on defense and offense and more importantly, probably lost the main cog to a unit who continually feasted off his enthusiasm and leadership. Said Jim Dickson, an assistant coach, Jeff makes a difference out there. Whether he would have made the difference against Alta, nobody knows, but I'd like to think he would W' .. V - V . ' Ht Jr'S i A.fc' i i. , J ft , w i . r -- The loss of Jeff Sampson in the interior line left a big hole to fill which Gregg McNabb and company tried to plug. 7M 7 ,r.:r. SrV rV) r-- v! 7-- 6, The Greatest Pain Was Not Playing By KEITH DUNCAN SALT LAKE CITY - A consequential mean blow to Jeff Sampson's thigh during the -- second quarter of Davis memorable 8 victory over Hillcrest, did more eventually than cause a lot of pain. The mental anguish it caused was far more brutal. THE HIT from Hillcrests Shane Beeny while Sampson fought on defense, was enough to keep the Davis senior from battling with his teammates last Friday afternoon for the big state championship. casino, the During the final minute of play against Hillcrest in the Jeff commented to me that his leg hurt so bad, he probably wouldn't be able to walk the next day. And he was right, the pain from the deep thigh bruise had got as deep as the bone. After the swelling started to take place, Jeff, his coaches and everyone who knew about his situation, knew it would take a miracle-workto make him ready for Friday. THE Davis lineman, who will probably be named to a dozen and teams in the next few weeks, missed school all week because as he put it, I couldnt even sit down. On Wednesday, while the rest of his teammates were out practicing for Alta, Sampson could be found in the coaches office with his leg propped up watching every game film he could get his hands on. During the week, Sampson had his mind focused on the pain a little bit, but mental anguish is probably what was killing the most. The chance of a lifetime, the chance to play for all the marbles, was slowly but surely slipping out of his grasp and he could do nothing about it. 21-1- 65-ya- 4-- A semi-final- t J6' r l ' j J X 0. Jeff Hammer rambles for stingy yards on gfj a day when real estate was at a premium. s, er MULTI-TALENTE- according to Smith. We shouldnt have let them down there in the first place, but the breaks werent going our way, he said. FROM THE 28, Jensen flared back and d nailed Troy Long on a pass. The Alta receiver then danced along the sidelines score. and ran untouched for the That score really hurt us, Sawley stated, If we could have gone into halftime ahead, I think our gameplan could have been a lot more conservative in the second half. I THINK too, that after being emotionally high just a few moments earlier, the score did a lot to take the wind out of our sails. On the first play of the second half, Sampson finally saw some action. But it was shortlived, (only one play) as his effectiveness was ousted with his inability to be mobile. Nothing was working for the Darts. Later in the third quar fleet-foote- 1 ter, the Darts would also lose Stevenson to injury. WITH 6:01 remaining, Davis had one of their final chances on offense remaining. There probably wasnt a fan from Davis who had forgotten the Darts miraculous finish against Hillcrest, so why not do it again? To begin with, Sargents pass missed its mark. Then a costly motion penalty made it 2nd and 15. A Sargent to Hammer pass went for 10 yards, five yards short of the first down. The double-revers- e call went next but Smith found th; running slim and got only a couple. With 4:16 left, Sawley elected to punt, hoping to get it back once more. back again, but only after Altas Long had scored again to put the game out of reach, AND DAMS did get it 19-- 7. clipper shaun stable commentary Journal Sports AND WITHOUT Sampson, the Darts set sail. On offense they probably could have used 6-- , 11 have." him the most, because outside their touchdown dnve m the second quarter, the Davis offense had little to offer. In the second half, it only got worse. But on defense, the Darts gave Alta a lot to think about, especially behind the efforts of linebacker Chris Stevenson who sacked Altas Mike Jensen three times and pressured him on several other blitzing calls. It wasnt until late in the first quarter, that Alta gained their initial first down. BUT WHEN the first downs came, they never quit. The Hawks used key passes from Jensen to Chad Ogden and Jon Roderick to get to the Davis three yard line, just before the first firt play of the quarter was to end. On the for the games in blasted second, Pete Morley 0 lead. a Alta and score gave first Later in the second quarter, and after a fake Alta field goal had failed, the Darts took over from their own 35 and began one of thos of their folpatented offensive drives so many to. The nifty accustomed become have lowers Miller and Mark Jeff Hammer, of running Smith had much to do with the dnve. Two key to Miller and Smith passes from Steve Sargent it was Sargent alive. drive Finally also kept fhe Davis their that out 2 gave from yards scoring s PAT kick was Morgan touchdown. Kyle only with 1:23 good and Davis held the lead, left. ALL WE HAD to do, said Sawley, was to score one more time like that and hold them. But it wasnt meant to be as Alta came right back. The Hawks ran three consecutive plays from their own 37, enough to get them down to Davis 28 yard line with 33 seconds left. Two what really hurt, long Jensen passes were . FROM THE FIRST day Jeff put on a football uniform as a freshman and went out to play, he and his teammates had kindled thoughts of someday playing for a state football champion- v - ship. As sophomores, those thoughts were turning into positive dreams and asjumors, the dreams had transformed into realistic values. As seniors, it was to take each game one at a time and somehow everything else would take care of itself. After defending another region championship, Sampson and his Dart teammates could feel it coming on as each week counted down. AFTER WHIPPING Brighton 27-- 7 and squeaking by Roy, 14-Sampson told me, This is ours if we want it bad enough. We've come four long years to this point, so why not go out and give it all weve got. The desire in this guy, in every 205th pound of him, was inmeasurable. To get by Hillcrest and then play for the state title, was an obsession. More important, he deserved everything hed worked for. AS HIS COACH, Ward Sawley, talked to his e team in the moments, Jeff could be n found lying on a pile of rain jackets, htterally dieing inside and whispering, Why now? Why mer He had dressed for the game, still hoping for a miracle. Sampson never played a down m the first half. He could be found pacing the sidelines like a caged animal and flexing his score leg every time it came off the ground. AT ONE POINT he said to me, Do you want to know what real depression is? I didnt need to answer, his eyes told the meaning of the word all too well. But despite it, Sampson continued to pace and was the best daggummed cheerleader the team has ever had. He never stopped yelling and urging the 22 out on the field to block harder and run faster. Said Sawley after the game, I felt real bad for Jeff, he wanted to go out m style and pre-gam- face-dow- couldnt. continued on next pg. |