Prep football: Parker’s 248 yards not enough, Davis escapes Weber in homecoming shootout
Garff nails 50-yard field goal late to seal 39-37 win for Darts
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- Davis running back Owen Talbot tries to get past Weber defender Kelton Tree (28) on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber running back Dyson Parker (11) cuts away from Davis defender Johnny Parker (17) on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis receiver Tyson Baggett (1) cuts upfield past Weber’s Aiden Rodarte (24) on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis lineman Siona Faeamania, left, and Weber lineman Ethan Whisler (65) battle on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber quarterback Crew Cacciacarne (1) rears back to throw a pass against Davis on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis receiver Tyson Baggett reaches the ball to the goal line against Weber as teammate Bode Sparrow (2) celebrates on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber’s Tyler Payne, center, tries to shake off a Davis defender on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber quarterback Crew Cacciacarne (1) tries to throw while in the clutches of a Davis defender on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis running back Owen Talbot (0) runs past Weber defenders Kannon Pluim (16) and Caden Lindholm (10) on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber quarterback Crew Cacciacarne (1) looks to pass against Davis on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber receiver Ian Elmore (4) fights against a Davis tackle on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber players Boltyn Sacre (67), Dyson Parker (11) and Kannon Pluim (16) huddle in a game against Davis on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, in Pleasant View.
PLEASANT VIEW — Davis senior Tradon Bessinger expected Weber High to give his team just about everything they could handle.
The Warriors did just that through four quarters, falling a 2-point conversion shy of overtime in a 39-37 homecoming loss to the Darts on Friday night.
Weber (4-2, 0-1 Region 1) junior Dyson Parker led the valiant effort with 248 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 37 carries.
Parker pushed the Weber offense, aided by returning senior Crew Cacciacarne (229 yards, two TDs) at quarterback after a long recovery from a torn Achilles. Parker set up the final big play of the evening: a 13-yard strike from Cacciciacarne to tight end Tyler Payne in the end zone.
Quickly reassembling at the line of scrimmage, Weber drew up a similar play seeking out Ian Elmore on a short toss to tie the ballgame at 39. It fell short.
Weber head coach Mo Cannon said the play came together as designed but that it wasn’t the right call.
“I don’t think it really fell apart,” Cannon said. “The target that we wanted was there, the decision that we made just wasn’t the right decision, but it’s something that we’ll learn from.”
The anticlimatic finish sealed the road victory for Davis (5-1, 1-0), with the opposing sideline erupting for the remaining 43 seconds of game clock.
It’s a win that Bessinger, possibly more than anyone on the field, knew his team had fought down to the wire to achieve. The senior quarterback completed 20 passes for 298 yards and three touchdowns.
Bessinger, singling out Payne, knew the Weber defense was going to keep getting back up after every play and it became even clearer when the Warriors picked up two consecutive stops during a scoreless third quarter.
Davis kicker Finn Garff bailed out Davis with a career-long 50-yarder to widen Weber’s deficit to 39-31 with little over six minutes left.
“For our offense, we like to go, go, go,” Bessinger said. “Stops aren’t normal for us and we just gotta know. We’ve got some humble guys and we’ve just gotta put our heads down and keep going.”
Bessinger quickly put his high-tempo playing style to work from the kickoff, completing a pair of first-down passes to set up a 13-yard touchdown run by Tyson Baggett (who had seven catches for 132 receiving yards) on the game’s opening drive.
Garff punched through a 31-yarder to give the Darts a 10-7 advantage through one quarter.
Cacciacarne, in a lapse of judgment, threw a ball right into the hands of Davis two-way star Bode Sparrow. The takeaway set Davis up inside the Weber 15-yard line, leading to an easy touchdown connection between Bessinger and Baggett.
Leading 16-7 after a failed two-point try, Davis still couldn’t find an answer for an increasingly heavy Parker run game and allowed the Weber leading rusher’s second score, a 13-yard trot, across with 8:38 to go in the half.
Of Parker, Cannon said his third-year veteran proves his worth every week and did so again, claiming all of Weber’s first-half scores on Friday night.
“(Parker) is the heart and soul of this team, man,” Cannon said. “We knew for a fact going into this game that we were going to have some opportunities to run on the ground. We just did our jobs up front in order to give him the opportunity to go out and do what he does.”
Wasting little time, Bessinger and Easton Frasure produced a roughly 50-yard reception two plays into the next drive before the senior quarterback targeted Frasure again for an 18-yard touchdown pass.
Parker marched back into the end zone and Alex Johnson added a 19-yard field goal on the heels of a critical Bessinger interception, notching a brief 24-23 lead for the Warriors nearing the break.
But Davis managed to set up a gutsy score with just four seconds remaining on a 15-yard touchdown catch by Frasure, followed by an unsuccessful two-point attempt, for a 29-24 advantage.
Things slowed tremendously in the third quarter, with Weber and Davis opening the second half exchanging punts on stops led by Weber’s Kannon Pluim and multiple 5-yard penalties burning the Warriors on the other end.
Driving at the start of the fourth quarter, Davis broke the mold and scored on a short touchdown run by Owen Talbot (64 rushing yards) with 10:32 remaining, making it 36-24.
Parker, hammering Weber down the field, set up a 28-yard Cacciacarne scoring pass to Tyson Higgs with eight minutes left to keep the Warriors in it at 36-31.
The final push, while not enough, impressed Bessinger.
“I grew up with (Parker),” Bessinger said. “His dad is a dog and you’ve gotta give him credit for that whole Weber team over there, ball security and staying up like that kid does.”
Davis next travels to Fremont and Weber hosts Syracuse in a pair of matchups set for 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27.
BOX SCORE
Davis 10 19 0 10 — 39
Weber 7 17 0 13 — 37
SCORING LOG
FIRST QUARTER
7:55 – Davis touchdown: Baggett 13-yard run. PAT good (Davis 7, Weber 0)
4:43 – Weber touchdown: Parker 2-yard run. PAT good (Davis 7, Weber 7)
2:33 – Davis field goal: Garff 31 yards (Davis 10, Weber 7)
SECOND QUARTER
11:37 – Davis touchdown: Baggett 20-yard pass from Bessinger. Two-point attempt fails (Davis 16, Weber 7)
8:38 – Weber touchdown: Parker 13-yard run. PAT good (Davis 16, Weber 14)
7:00 – Davis touchdown: Frasure 18-yard pass from Bessinger. PAT good (Davis 23, Weber 14)
3:51 – Weber touchdown: Parker 3-yard run. PAT good (Davis 23, Weber 21)
1:27 – Weber field goal: Johnson 19 yards (Weber 24, Davis 23)
0:04 – Davis touchdown: Frasure 15-yard pass from Bessinger. Two-point attempt fails. (Davis 29, Weber 24)
FOURTH QUARTER
10:32 – Davis touchdown: Talbot 2-yard run. PAT good. (Davis 36, Weber 24)
8:00 – Weber touchdown: Higgs 28-yard pass from Caccicarne. PAT good (Davis 36, Weber 31)
6:18 – Davis field goal: Garff 50 yards (Davis 39, Weber 31)
0:43 — Weber touchdown: T. Payne 13-yard pass from Cacciacarne. Two-point attempt fails (Davis 39, Weber 37)
Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.
