A light show in the sky on Friday night made for some wet and wild football across northern Utah on Saturday.
Five Week 8 games that were postponed on Friday night were resumed on Saturday, with Clearfield, Syracuse, Davis, West Field and Roy all coming out on top on Saturday.
Here’s a recap of the five games:
Syracuse 33, Weber 26
In a back-and-forth second half with great playing making on both sides despite the rainy weather, Syracuse made just enough plays to rally past Weber for the 33-26 victory.
“We wanted to play last night. Everyone in that room was disappointed when we got delayed at halftime. We felt good about where we were,” said Syracuse coach Mitch Tulane.
“They were ready to rock and roll. They loved it. They’d rather pay in this weather than play in the sun. Saturday morning football.”
With the win, Syracuse and Weber are now tied for second in the Region 1 standings with 2-1 records.
The Warriors led 14-13 when the game was suspended with two seconds left in the second quarter on Friday night, but they quickly took the lead on a Ledger Wight 13-yard TD run just over a minute into the third quarter.
Weber responded quickly with a 93-yard TD return from Josh Hamblin to go ahead 20-19.
With Syracuse leading 25-20 midway through the fourth quarter and lining up for a field goal to extend the lead, Weber blocked the attempt, and a huge return set the Warriors up with great field position.
Dyson Parker punched it in on a 7-yard touchdown as Weber took a 26-25 lead after the missed two-point conversion.
Syracuse didn’t panic, and just went back to pounding the football in marching down field.
“We knew we could run the ball, and they knew we were going to run the ball and we still were able, which is huge,” said Tulane.
Ryker Van Komen scored on a 10-yard TD run with 4:19 remaining, putting the Titans ahead for good 33-26. Syracuse’s Kolin White sealed the win with an interception in the end zone with 15 seconds remaining.
Davis 21, Farmington 10
Amid a steady, heavy rain throughout the second half of Saturday’s make-up second half, Davis got defensive stop after defensive stop to prevail 21-10 and win back the chain traveling trophy.
“Emotions were definitely, high. Always will be in this game just with the proximity,” said Davis coach Scott Peery. “With the environment and the conditions, we just told the boys ‘Any place, any time.’ That’s been our mantra since Day 1 five years ago. We’ll play anyone, any place any time.”
Davis led 14-10 when the game was suspended on Friday night at halftime because of lightning.
When the game resumed Saturday afternoon, Davis quickly extended the lead to two possessions on a Jaxton Itaaheau 1-yard touchdown run just 38 seconds into the third quarter.
On Friday night, Tradon Bessinger connected with Bode Sparrow on a pair of touchdown passes to help the Darts build the halftime lead.
Clearfield 35, Bonneville 19
When weather halted this game on Friday night, Bonneville was seemingly in control up 19-7.
Everything changed when the game resumed early in the second quarter.
“I think we came yesterday just a little flat, and today they were just kind of loose,” said Clearfield coach Cody Caputo. “I just told them, ‘Let’s just win these first nine minutes, and then let’s just see what happens after that.’”
Clearfield not only won those first nine minutes, building a 21-14 halftime lead, but it forced two turnovers in the second half to pull away for the 35-19 win.
“It was actually kind of fun to get to play on a Saturday. I told the boys, ‘Let’s go have a day game and see what happens,’” said Caputo.
The region win was the first for Clearfield in five years, and with a 3-5 records this season Caputo believes his team should be in good shape to secure a 5A playoff berth in a few weeks.
“It was huge, first region win in five years. We had this one circled. We wanted this win,” he said.
Alyric Kelley played a big role in the comeback with three touchdowns on Saturday, one receiving, one rushing and one defensive TD.
West Field 27, Layton 25
After throwing two touchdown passes on Friday before the game was postponed a day, West Field quarterback Easton Eilertson threw another on Saturday as the Longhorns held off a late rally by Layton for the 27-25 victory.
West Field looked firmly in control when Kolt Abbott scored on a nine-yard TD run with 5:10 remaining and his team now leading 27-12.
Layton, however, responded with two touchdowns over a span of two minutes — both Koen Doane to Carter Hughes touchdown passes — but the Lancers failed to convert the two-point conversion on the first score.
West Field improved to 6-2 on the season with the win, with Layton falling to 2-6.
“We’ve struggled to finish games and put teams away in the second half lately. That’s an indicator that I need to do a better job with our half-time adjustments and helping the team refocus. We made just enough plays to find a way to win. Cooper Roundy had the game-clinching interception that allowed us to close it out. Credit to Layton for a gritty effort & comeback bid in adverse conditions,” said West Field coach Eric Jones.
Roy 10, Northridge 7
The conditions weren’t ideal for high-scoring football, and it showed in Saturday’s make-up game on Friday’s suspended game.
Roy led 7-0 when the game was suspended by weather with just 39 seconds left in the first half. The only other scoring it got on Saturday was a third-quarter field goal by Bo Williams, but that turned out to be enough as the Royals improved to 3-5.
“It was definitely difficult for our team to try to keep the same energy and momentum from last night’s first half into today. Too much down time in between, with it being a 5 p.m. start and we were not as energized as we were the night before,” said Roy coach Chris Solomona.
Northridge scored its lone points of the game with 4:38 remaining in the fourth quarter on a 60-yard TD pass from Jack Hall to Dontae Dyson.
The Knights had a chance to potentially drive down and tie the game or win it, but Roy’s Ryker Corderos intercepted a pass with 1:11 remaining to seal the win.
“The rain was a factor I felt for both teams, so defense and special teams had to make an impact this game. Defense was lights out all day, but we did give up one screen that turned into a 70 yard TD. Besides that, we were solid both days and I couldn’t be more proud of the way they responded,” said Solomona.