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Parsons, Davenport Pull It Out Gorillas Beat Tac-Bap 24-21 For Title After Trailing 21-9 Entering Fourth

Jim Cour Associated Press

The Davenport Gorillas looked like losers after three quarters.

Overcoming a 21-9 deficit, the Gorillas used Marty Parsons’ 1-yard touchdown sneak with 54 seconds left to beat Tacoma Baptist 24-21 for the Washington high school Class B-11 title Saturday.

“I was trying my hardest and all I wanted to get out of it was a win,” Parsons said.

Davenport (12-1) set up its winning touchdown on a fourth-and-9 pass from Parsons to Cliff Swain, a 34-yarder to the Crusdaders’ 7 with 1:32 to go. The Gorillas scored three plays later and Parsons then added a 2-point conversion run.

Davenport coach Skip Pauls said he let his players come up with the crucial Parsons-to-Swain pass.

“I make some calls and I let them make some,” Pauls said.

“They were getting tired and we wanted to make them run,” Crusaders coach Mark Smith said. “We got tired, too, and it was just a matter of who would make the last play.”

Tacoma Baptist (12-1) led 14-7 at halftime and 21-9 after Jeremy English’s 8-yard touchdown run with 3:03 remaining in the third quarter.

Mistakes did the Crusaders in in the second half.

The Gorillas scored a touchdown early in the fourth quarter after Tyson Deal’s punt was fumbled away by Wes Johns and it was recovered by Dale Buchanan on the final play of the third quarter.

Davenport scored two plays later on Josh FitzPatrick’s 3-yard run, his second touchdown. FitzPatrick also had a 3-yard touchdown run in the first quarter.

Early in the third quarter, Davenport got a safety when the Crusaders’ Shon Peil recovered a bad center snap in the end zone on a punt attempt.

The Crusaders got a 3-yard run from Peil and a 33-yard Peil pass to A.J. Norman for first-quarter touchdowns.

Peil completed 10 of 21 passes for 136 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions and also gained 60 yards on 10 carries.

Davenport won its first B-11 crown in the first time in the B-11 finals. Tacoma Baptist made its first title-game appearance in its fifth-year program.