High school football: Davis’ Tradon Bessinger tosses 5 TDs in dominant Week 1 victory over Brighton

For much of the first half of Friday’s season opener, it looked like Davis’ offense was playing in a 7-on-7 game.

With very little pressure on Davis quarterback Tradon Bessinger, the returning first team all-stater torched Brighton’s defense with short passes underneath and deep balls as well, leading his team to an emphatic 56-21 victory on the opening Thursday night of the 2025 high school football season.

Bessinger’s final state line: 31 of 38 (81%) for 384 yards and five touchdowns.

“As Tradon goes we go, and I think you saw his brilliance tonight,” said Davis coach Scott Peery. “I’m fortunate, I get to see it every day at practice. I just sit there and like, he’s a good football player. So fortunate to be able to coach him.”

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Davis came into the season ranked fourth in 6A and it jumped out fast Thursday, scoring on its first four drives in the first half to build a 28-0 lead. It also tacked on an defensive score and a special teams score in a thoroughly dominating road victory.

“Fortunate, because if we played Brighton again, I think it’s a different story, so we were just fortunate on special teams, defense and offense to make some big plays to kind of pull away,” said Peery.

“But again, it’s Week 1. It’s a wild card game. I think anything can happen there, so fortunately we made some plays jump on them. Looking forward to Week 2.”

Davis will look to keep the momentum going against former region foe Fremont in Week 2, while Brighton hosts Weber next week.

Brighton’s perceived strength coming into the season was in the trenches both offensively and defensively, whereas the opposite was the case for Davis.

Dart players heard the murmurs in the offseason that the linemen would be their Achilles’ heel, and Peery was glad to see some of that rumbling put to rest for one week at least.

“We wanted to see where we stacked up with a good team. Brighton’s a great team. We all know that. There’s a lot of question marks with Davis in certain areas, and they’re not completely answered yet, but I think that’s a great start for us,” said Peery.

A big chunk of that success and then the resulting confidence was established on the opening drive of the season. Davis’ offense took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards in 3:01 as Bessinger completed 10 of 11 passes — none longer than 22 yards — and capped the scoring drive with a 1-yard TD pass to Jaxton Itaaheau.

All those short passes set up the deep balls on Davis’ next two first-quarter possessions. Bessinger his Isaac Morrison on a 49-yard TD pass at the 5:17 mark of the first quarter, and then Bode Sparrow on a 50-yard pass with 1:34 remaining.

Seemingly in a blink, the hyped matchup between top five teams in 6A and 5A was rapidly turning into a blowout.

In the second quarter, Itaaheau hauled in another TD from Bessinger to make it 28-0, and then senior Cameron Mason returned a tipped punt 69 yards for a score for the 35-0 lead.

“It was what we expected. It’s what we planned for. It’s what we wanted, at least,” Bessinger said. “Who wouldn’t want that right there? It’s all the guys though. Our O line, they’ve been doubted a lot this offseason, and they just proved everybody wrong.”

Brighton finally got on the board with 3:17 left in the first half as Mason Lynton caught a 9-yard TD pass from Ryce Palepoi.

The Darts, however, scored twice more before halftime. The first score came on a Tyson Baggett 26-yard TD reception from Bessinger, and then Sparrow sent Davis into the half leading 49-7 after returning an interception 78 yards for the seventh touchdown of the first half.

With a running clock in the second half, Davis put things into cruise control for the season-opening win. Brighton, meanwhile, found a bit of rhythm offensively as Palepoi tossed another touchdown to Lynton and then another to Slade Taylor to wrap up the scoring.

The Bengals’ running game also found a bit of a spark in the second half with Staton Gutierrez, as he carried the ball 10 times for 96 yards.

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, Trey Harper was misidentified in the photo caption.