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PLEASANT VIEW — Wasatch started well in its football game at Weber on Friday.
The Warriors controlled the middle and end.
Weber scored 29 unanswered points to blow away Wasatch and move to 3-1 with a 35-16 win over the Wasps on Friday night.
Wasatch was first to score after Ashton Nord picked off Carter Payne's bootleg screen pass and took it down to the Weber 6-yard line. William Anderson rumbled in from the 1-yard line three plays later for a 7-0 lead.
Weber responded in kind with a touchdown drive of its own as Payne found Ian Elmore in the back corner of the end zone for a 16-yard strike, but a missed extra point kept Wasatch ahead 7-6.
The Wasps reeled off a good-looking drive of their own, mixing a lot of runs in from Richard Brand. A late hit penalty on Weber on fourth down kept the drive alive, but Wasatch settled for a Teague Fritzsche field goal and led 10-6.
Weber had shown signs of breaking through Wasatch's defense, and finally did it with aplomb on a four-play, 76-yard drive that saw Payne find Dyson Parker for a 10-yard touchdown pass.
Soon after, the Warriors were up 21-10 after a long drive with two touchdowns negated via penalty flag. Eventually, Tyson Higgs' wide receiver pass found a wide-open Elmore for a 22-yard TD, as Elmore walked backward in for the score.
"It felt great because we were in the red zone for how long, then we finally scored, we finally got that touchdown pass; it just felt amazing," Higgs said.
"Last time I actually threw a ball, like in a game or even in practice, was — I can't even remember — like maybe little league," Higgs said.
The Warriors picked off Wasatch quarterback Mack Nelson three times over the next 1:36 of game time in the second quarter, and had myriad chances for a three-score lead going into halftime.
Those three drives ended with two missed field goals and a Wasatch interception for Heath Budd to end the half.
Things got rolling quickly for the Warriors, as Higgs returned the second-half kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, putting Weber up 28-10 with 11:47 left in the third quarter.
Both teams traded fourth-down stops until Caden Lindholm's 3-yard rushing score early in the fourth put Weber up 35-10.
Weber's defense had clamped down since the midway point of the second quarter. The Warriors' Aiden Rodarte nabbed his third pick of the season — the team's ninth — in the second half to make it four picks total against Wasatch.
"They responded, you know what I mean. We knew for a fact that we were gonna send pressure this week, put a little pressure on that quarterback, try and keep him in the pocket," first-year Weber head coach Mo Cannon said. "I think the boys responded really well from our last week out."
Backup quarterback Joseph Bradley threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Mason Gomez on the game's final play for the Wasps.
Weber heads to Granger next week before hosting Davis in the Region 1 opener. The Darts won Region 1 last year, beating the Warriors twice, including in the playoffs.
Wasatch (1-3) starts Region 7 play next against Orem.
