Prep football: Darts charge into semis

Kaysville » There's nothing tricky about the way Davis High plays football.

Instead of the fancy spread offense, the Darts would rather knock you around for an entire game and run the ball right at you. On defense, Davis is easily one of the most physical teams in the state, hard to run on, fast and tough to beat against the pass.

In a 17-9 upset win over Pleasant Grove on Friday in the second round of the Class 5A playoffs, the Darts showed all of those attributes. In advancing to next week's semifinal, where it will meet Hunter, Davis did to Pleasant Grove what no team has done to the extremely talented Vikings this season: Dominate the line of scrimmage.

"We put

together some great drives in the second half," Darts senior running back Tanner Hinds said. "The credit has to go to the offensive line. They were great today. They opened some huge holes."

If the Davis O-line was great, Hinds was downright spectacular. Hinds turned in a performance that solidified his place as one of the very best running backs in the state. He carried the ball 31 times for 182 yards, with 115 of those coming in the second half. He also made the biggest play of the game, a 77-yard run from deep in Davis territory that saved the Darts from a potential safety.

"Tanner's been making big plays all season," Davis coach Ryan Bishop said. "The best thing about him is that he's unselfish, but he's a great individual

player."

Landon Horne and Daniel Moffett scored the Darts touchdowns, both on throws from junior quarterback Gavin Fowler. Moffett's 59-yard catch-and-run supplied Davis with a lead it would never lose. And when Mike Jewkes banged home a 29-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter, the 17-9 lead made it awfully tough for Pleasant Grove to rally from.

In handing the Vikings their third loss in the last four games, the Davis defense held Pleasant Grove to 181 total yards. Part of this was because star quarterback Dallas Lloyd, who had previously sprained his shoulder, suffered a broken leg and was out for the rest of the season. Without Lloyd, the Stanford commit, the Vikings' offense was simply not the same.

Still, the Darts' defense was stellar. Troy Hinds, Tanner's brother and a sophomore defensive end, came up with 2.5 quarterback sacks. The Davis front four dominated the second half, pressuring Pleasant Grove quarterback Donny Lewis into rushed passes and an interception. On the other side, Vikings defensive end Joe Kruger, the younger brother of former Utah star Paul Kruger, was dominant, turning in 13 tackles and a sack.

"This was a great high school game," Bishop said. "It was such a good game that it was easy to get caught up in it. Both teams were tough, and very physical."

tjones@sltrib.com