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Show VHS loses heartbreaker Davis wins homecoming ' despite being outplayed ; "T rf """ :: CUPPER JIM HASKETT VIEWMONT'S JIM BENDER (33 on top) gets some tough yardage against Davis' Rob Warden (33 bottom). Bender gained 186 yards on the evening on just 21 carries. Warden, when he played offense, racked up 174 of his own yards. By KEITH DUNCAN KAYSVILLE Viewmont did everything to spoil Davis High's homecoming last Friday night, everything ev-erything but win. The Vikings turned the tables on a couple of previous blow-out Davis High victories in recent years, only to have time run out on them and drop a heartbreaking 22-19 22-19 defeat. Consider if you will Viewmont's moral victory in the following areas: Viewmont beat Davis in total first downs, 17-15. The Vikes totalled up 358 yards while the Darts were held to 297 yards. The Vikings had 90 passing yards (7-11) to Davis' 8 total yards (2-5). Davis used their double-wing attack to mount up 289 rushing yards on 45 carries. Viewmont meanwhile had to feel good about putting 268 of their own rushing yards on the board, with their version ver-sion of the double-wing. Viewmont held a 6-0 lead at halftime. But despite all of this, the Darts were able to play well enough in Viewmont's final offensive drive to yank out the victory. That final Viewmont drive was a story within itself. Davis' Rob Warden had just capped off a 69 yard scoring drive to give Davis a 22-19 lead with just over seven minutes to play. That's when the Vikings took over, starting on their own 30 yard line. Jim Bender helped get Viewmont View-mont moving as he carried four times in five plays for a total of 27 yards. Another key play was a Jason Burningham to Jimmy Allen pass that netted 13 yards and a first down. Moments later Clayton Walker Wal-ker picked up another first down with 1:51 left that brought Viewmont View-mont to Davis 22 yard line. But that's when trouble hit the Viking offense. First a motion penalty pen-alty and then a holding call, moved them all the way back to Davis' 40. Burningham, with time running out, hit Allen again which brought his team to Davis' 18. But there were only 14 seconds left and no time outs reamining. That left it up to Burningham, who rolled to his left on the game's last play and let go a prayer into the end zone. Davis Travis Jackson intercepted and ended Viewmont's dream of beating Davis amidst their homecoming. home-coming. There were plenty of mixed emotions emo-tions after the game. Most Davis players and coaches were just thankful to still be undefeated in league, while Viewmont boarded their bus home bewildered they'd come so close but had let it slip away. Viewmont's Burningham, who did a commendable job on both sides of the football all evening, commented, "We pushed them up and down the field all night, but in the end we got robbed by a couple of calls. "We still feel like we can play with anyone in the state, there just isn't a powerhouse this year." But Burningham did note too, that it was important his ballclub win their final two games to have a chance in the state playoffs. The Darts on the other hand are now 3-0 in Region Four and are getting ever so close to another showdown for yet another region championship. The game of the year will pit them against the High- . land Rams on Thursday, Oct. 16, a 3:30 p.m. battle in Salt Lake City. The final week of region action sends Highland to Bountiful and East comes to visit the Darts. "We don't have an easy one the rest of the way," said Davis Jim Dickson. Dick-son. "If we don't answer the call from this point forward, somewhere some-where along the line we're going to get knocked down." About the Viewmont game, Dickson said the contest might do some good. "When you're in a game like this one, like sitting on a keg of dynamite dyna-mite all night, you're bound to do an awful lot of thinking about improving im-proving yourself every day in practice prac-tice and every night in a game." Down 6-0 at halftime, Dickson remembers one thing he said that may have sunk in more than anything any-thing else. "I just asked the kids if they wanted to go to the homecoming homecom-ing dance after a loss. Not a whole lot needed to be said after that," Dickson said. Davis received the opening kick-off kick-off and started their first touchdown touch-down drive from their own 30 yard line. The key play was a 43 yard scamper by Jackson and moments later Warden went in from five yards out. Flood's kick was good and led 7-6. But Viewmont came right back with a score of their own as Walker and Bender chewed up yardage almost at will. For the night Bender had 176 yards on 21 carries while Walker had 89 yards himself. Viewmont fans went wild when Burningham took ot over the goal line for a TD. The PAT pass attempt was no good and Viewmont View-mont led 12-7. Davis wasn't dead however, as a reverse kickoff play went 57 yards and just minutes later Reed Secrist was scoring to make it 13-12. Warden's War-den's two-point PAT run made it 15-12. That was three quick' touchdowns touch-downs from either side in just four minutes. j Just two plays into the fourth quarter, Viewmont's Bender exploded ex-ploded with a 60-yard touchdown run and with the PAT, Viewmont led 19-15. The Darts showed some character charac-ter and poise in their final TD drive when they found themselves in a third and 18 situation. That's whan Warden burst the middle for 'a 25 yard gainer. From that point forward, for-ward, Davis moved like a locomotive locomo-tive before Warden scored with 7:15 to play, making it 22-19. Warden War-den gained 162 yards on 22 carries. "You've got to give Viewmont a lot of credit, they handled the ball real well on offense. But we weren't we-ren't about to change things though, we were committed to doing the things that we do best even if they weren't working at the time. t "There were many times that we just got out-quicked but we stuck with the people we've had all along. We aren't in to making wholesale changes around here,!' said Dickson. The Darts had to feel good abotjt going the 48 minutes with only two penalties for 28 yards. j |