DARLINGTON — Darlington bested Southwestern-East Dubuque (2-2) in dominating fashion on Friday, Sept. 8 with a 40-0 shutout.
“Even though our defense has played great all year, we have been missing that shutout so it was nice to get,” Darlington head coach Travis Winkers said.
The beatdown started early, with Maddox Goebel returning the opening kickoff 80 yards for the Redbirds’ first score.
Six minutes later, Darlington found itself with another six points as Breylin Goebel shot a 6-yard dart to Will Murray for its second touchdown, pushing the lead to 12-0.
As the game neared the end of the first quarter, Southwestern-East Dubuque got its hopes up with a pair of big plays that got the Wildcats to the Redbirds’ 28-yard line. A fumble on a shotgun snap fell perfectly into Carter Murray’s hands, though, and he booked it 72 yards down the field for Darlington’s third score of the night.
A successful PAT by Denilo Ramos-Godoy gave the Redbirds a commanding 19-0 lead as the first quarter came to a close.
The second quarter was much like the first. Within the first two minutes, Darlington was on the board with a 10-yard rush by Reagan Jackson and a Ramos-Godoy PAT, pushing the lead to 26-0.
Four minutes later at the six-minute mark, the Redbirds had the ball back, with Jackson punching the ball in for his second score — this time a 2-yard rush.
Ramos-Godoy made the PAT, and Darlington held a 33-0 lead.
As if things couldn’t get any worse for the struggling Wildcats, Maddox Goebel was the recipient of an interception that looked almost like it was meant to go to him to begin with.
Regardless, he booked it 44 yards for the Redbirds’ sixth and final score of the game, and a fourth consecutive PAT by Ramos-Godoy put Darlington at a 40-0 advantage going into the half.
While the Redbirds’ scoring was absent in the second half, they also kept Southwestern-East Dubuque scoreless to close the game, doing so with their backups for a majority of the time.
“We kicked off to start the second half,” Winkers said. “We played our starters on one series of defense. Once they punted, it was our backups the rest of the way on both sides.”
Although passing wasn’t a major priority for Darlington, Breylin Goebel made the most of his opportunities, going 3-for-4 for 53 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Two of his passes were hauled in by receiving leader, Will Murray, who went for 48 yards and one touchdown, while his other lone pass was brought in by Broker Buschor for five yards.
Rushing was the offensive focus for the Redbirds, who saw nine different players combine for 186 yards and two touchdowns on 31 attempts.
Jackson (9 rush, 89 yds, 2 TDs) was the lead back on the day, totaling almost half of his squad’s yards, and Breylin Goebel (4 rush, 32 yds), Tye Crist (5 rush, 27 yds), and Connor Larson (3 rush, 13 yds) all eclipsed double-digit yards against the Wildcats.
A tall order is on deck for Southwestern-East Dubuque (2-2, 0-2 Six Rivers), who look to host Black Hawk-Warren in Southwestern at 7 p.m. this Friday.
The Warriors (4-0, 2-0 Six Rivers) are fresh off a blowout at Fennimore (2-2, 0-2 SWAL), 30-0, and haven’t allowed more than a single touchdown a game to start the season.
Darlington’s win over the Wildcats puts the team at 3-1 overall and 2-0 in conference.
Darlington was slated to play Parkview-Albany (0-4, 0-2 SWAL), but injuries and low numbers led the contest on Friday, Sept. 15 to be canceled. The Vikings recently lost to Pecatonica-Argyle 46-0.
“We need to continue to get better every week in search of the perfect game,” Winkers said. “We have had the occasional mental mistake on defense that has resulted in scores or big plays. Offensively, we were finally able to run some stuff that we had been struggling on. We need to continue to build on those.
“It was also nice for the first time all year to be injury free after a game,” he added. “We have been fighting injuries to key players, so eventually getting our injured players back will help.”
