It was crazy. I had my doubts, but I stayed positive. – Davis wide receiver Jake Emery
KAYSVILLE — If Davis High was going to have any chance of defending its Region 2 football championship this year, the Darts definitely could not afford another devastating overtime defeat.
Jake Emery made sure they didn't have to deal with that.
Emery, a senior wide receiver, took a direct snap out of the Wildcat formation, broke to his right, shed a couple of would-be tacklers and rumbled 25 yards on the Darts' first play of the third overtime to give them a tension-filled 29-23 victory over Syracuse in a rain-soaked Region 2 showdown.
"It was crazy," said Emery, who admitted he'd never before scored a game-winning touchdown in his life. "I had my doubts, but I stayed positive.
"After I broke that first tackle, I was like, 'I don't know if I'm gonna score,' and then all of a sudden it just opened it up and I had to score. … We needed the win. It's not a great feeling (to lose in overtime), and I had to change it."
The Darts, who dropped a difficult OT decision two weeks earlier to Viewmont, raised their record to 2-1 in Region 1 and 5-1 overall with the wild win. They are now tied for the league lead with Syracuse, which had its four-game winning streak stopped and slipped to 4-2 overall.
Before Emery's dramatic dash to the end zone, Davis rode a tremendous performance by senior running back Riley Smith to take a 20-10 lead early in the fourth quarter.
Smith rushed for 190 yards on 29 carries, including a 50-yard scoring scamper on the Darts' first play from scrimmage, and hauled in two touchdown passes from senior quarterback Hayden Grange on perfectly executed screen passes of 11 yards in the second quarter and 21 yards in the fourth period.
But Syracuse staged a strong fourth-quarter comeback to get the game into overtime.
The Titans, who got a short TD plunge by junior quarterback Ty Metcalfe in the first period, rallied with a 33-yard field goal by Jayden Grose in the third quarter, a 37-yarder by Grose midway through the final period and a 21-yard touchdown pass from Metcalfe to Dallin Kirkman with 3:12 remaining in regulation. The game-tying score was set up by Brennon Jones' interception deep in Davis territory.
In the first overtime, Grose connected on a 26-yard field goal to make it 23-20, but only after an apparent touchdown pass from Metcalfe to Kirkman was ruled incomplete.
Davis High sophomore place-kicker Will Ferrin then connected on a clutch 39-yard field goal on the Darts' first OT possession to tie it at 23.
Both kickers missed their field goal attempts in the second overtime, and the Darts' defense stiffened to stop the Titans in the third OT, as Jake Hadley came up with a crucial fourth-down sack.
On came the Darts for their third-overtime possession, and Emery's game-winning scamper on first down from the 25 suddenly ended it.
Hadley, Ryan Lindberg, Spencer Plummer, Zack Hoskins, Hayden Lawson and Hayden Prows took turns coming up with big plays for the Davis defense, while Austin Kirkman, Tucker Bartels, Nate Marin, Trey Oliver and Jones make big plays on "D" for the Titans.
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