DARLINGTON — The Redbirds locked in their 17th-consecutive playoff trip with a 49-6 win during homecoming over the Fennimore Golden Eagles (3-4, 2-2 SWAL) on Sept. 27.
Darlington (5-1, 4-0), the ninth-ranked team in Division 5, also kept pace atop the conference with Cuba City (5-1, 4-0), ranked No. 8 in Division 6.
For Redbirds head coach Travis Winkers, the focus was not taking Fennimore for granted.
“They have some good athletes, and are better than a couple of teams we played,” he said. “So you can’t take them for granted, but we also felt like we were the better team, and we showed that.”
An early 4-and-out for the Golden Eagles was answered quickly with a Redbird score. Darlington marched exclusively on the ground from its own 15 to the end zone. A Calum Crist 55-yard run significantly helped the scoring drive, which was capped on a 6-yard rush by Maddox Goebel nearly five minutes into the competition.
On the first play of Fennimore’s next drive, Broker Buschor ripped the ball out of Golden Eagle running back Reece Kelley’s hands, recovered the ball himself, and made it to the 25.
The turnover set the pace early. Moments later, Darlington’s advantage improved to 14-0 as Zeke Zuberbuhler took a quarterback keeper around the strong side that fooled almost every defender.
The Redbirds’ D forced a second punt. On the second play of the drive — and Darlington’s seventh offensive play of the night — the team earned its third score as Zuberbuhler ran hit paydirt with another keeper. He nearly lost his footing at the line of scrimmage but steadied himself and burst forward nearly untouched for a 71-yard score.
Fennimore advanced just two yards on the following drive, and on the ensuing punt Darlington stacked the box. Four defenders made it to the punter unscathed. Goebel scooped up the blocked punt and received blocks from Aiden Dempsey-Strang, Isaac Crist, and Buschor, and tallied the fourth score in four minutes of action. Goebel also lumbered in for the 2-point conversion, putting the split at 28-0.
The Redbird machine continued churning out points, as Zuberbuhler intercepted the Golden Eagles’ next snap at the 48. Goebel notched his second score of the night — this time in three plays — from 44 yards out on third down with just over a minute to play in the first quarter. Yasser Andino-Andino notched his third PAT in four attempts to put Darlington ahead, 35-0.
Fennimore failed to convert on a fake punt, which set up the Redbirds 39 yards from yet another touchdown. The first-down play was a connection from Zuberbuhler to Buschor, where the latter only needed five yards to scamper into the end zone four seconds ahead of the end of the quarter.
The final points of the game for Darlington came by way of Zuberbuhler’s third rushing score — a 43-yard keeper to cap a two-play drive five minutes into the second quarter.
The Golden Eagles finally managed to score in the third amidst a running clock, but any hope of a comeback was long since gone.
The Redbirds finished with a combined 347 yards rushing on just 26 carries (13.3 ypc).
With the positives from the game — allowing just one score, less than 170 yards of total defense, and forcing three turnovers — Winkers was most pleased with his team’s discipline.
“I’m really happy that we didn’t have any false starts,” he said. “That’s been an Achilles’ heel for us. I know it seems silly, but that’s something we needed to improve on.”
Up to Friday, Darlington was averaging about seven penalties per game. Against Fennimore, the Redbirds committed just one — a defensive offside in the first quarter.
The focus for Darlington moving forward, including next week at defending Division 4 state champion Lodi (4-2), is to minimize mistakes.
“We need to continue to not have false starts and dumb penalties,” Winkers said. “We’re playing pretty well right now.”
