A year ago, high school lacrosse was set to begin as a sanctioned sport across the state. But COVID had other ideas.

The pandemic put an end to the sports maiden voyage in Utah, forcing schools such as Davis to postpone play for an entire year. Like so many other teams, the Darts were eager to get on the field for the 2021 campaign. Davis made the most of its long-awaited arrival on the scene. 

This year has been a successful one for the Darts, which got off to a 8-1 start overall and 7-0 in Region 1. The team has been dominant in its victories and solid on both ends of the field. More importantly, Davis was first in league standings after its first five region contests. As of April 19, Davis had piled up 137 goals while giving up 59. The latter is tops in Region 1. 

Nearly a third of the team’s allowed goals during this stretch came against state power Park City, a team that has dominated club play for years, on April 6. Park City routed the Darts 21-8 that day, but Davis was otherwise unscathed in its first seven outings. The team had four wins by double digits, including wins over Clearfield (18-3 on March 25), Layton (18-0 on April 13) and Highland (16-1 on April 15). 

Lacrosse is naturally a higher-scoring game than similar sports such as hockey and soccer. Plenty of players have contributed on the offensive end. Junior Rhett Rice paces the Darts in the goal-scoring column with 37, while junior Connor Johnson had 20 through the first nine games. During this span, other leaders included senior Mason Kilgore (17 goals), senior Blake Williams (15 goals) and freshman Nick Johnson (10 goals). Sophomore Emmet Rice paced the team in assists at this point with 20, while Rhett Rice had 17. 

Kache Allen has manned the net most of the time for Davis. The senior had 85 saves through nine games, with a save percentage of more than 60%. He allows eight goals a game. Sophomore Blake Lucas has seen some time in the goal in relief of Allen. He had 10 saves and surrendered four goals during limited action through April 19. 

The Darts had four more games in April, followed by a slate of three games in May. At press time, the Darts were sixth in RPI standings. Fewer schools currently have lacrosse teams, so there are three divisions across the state: A, B and C. The Division A state tournament, where Davis will compete, will start May 18 with first-round games being held on the home fields of higher-seeded teams.