DARLINGTON — The weather was perfect for a beatdown as No. 1 Darlington beat No. 8 Belleville 49-14 in a WIAA Division 6 Level 1 game on Friday, Oct. 20. During the regular season, the Redbirds stomped the Wildcats 58-0.
Darlington (9-1, 7-0 SWAL) entered its fourth straight WIAA football tournament as a top-2 seed, and Maddox Goebel brought back the opening kickoff 88 yards for a Redbird touchdown.
A Denilo Ramos-Godoy (7-for-7) successful PAT gave Darlington a 7-0 advantage, 16 seconds into the game.
While the final score gave the impression of a blowout, the Redbird offense took a while to get scoring, primarily due to errors — something their head coach, Travis Winkers, indicated as a point of improvement after the game.
“We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot,” he said. “We can’t really say much else besides quit the mental mistakes.”
Darlington’s stellar defense — that’s allowed just 6.2 points per game this season — kept the Wildcats (3-7, 3-4) at bay for the entire first half, which was long enough for the Redbirds to run up a 28-point lead.
Darlington ran for three touchdowns in the second quarter — 3-yard shots by Maddox Goebel (9 att, 29 yds, 1 TD) and Reagan Jackson (7 att, 62 yds, 2 TDs), and a 9-yard blast by Tye Crist (11 att, 116 yds, 2 TDs).
Coming out of the break, Belleville finally got onto the board as Logan Derke (6 att, 4 yds, 1 TD) tallied a 7-yard rushing touchdown 4:32 into the third quarter.
Tye Crist and Jackson erased the slightly closed gap with 33- and 36-yard rushing touchdowns, respectively, giving the Redbirds a 42-7 lead and running clock to work with in the fourth quarter.
Darlington’s final score — a 6-yard run from Mitchell Martin (4 att, 31 yds, 1 TD) — gave the team a 49-7 lead.
The Wildcats responded with a 5-yard touchdown run from Trey Myers (6 att, 46 yds, 1 TD) ahead of the final bell.
“We have to keep finding a way to get better,” Winkers said. “So far besides the one blemish back in Week 2, the season has been good. We had some games in the middle where we did not play up to our standard but now is a completely new season.”
The win for the Redbirds puts them in Level 2, where they’ll host No. 5 Mineral Point (7-3, 6-1) at 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27.
“This is the season that our team has been waiting for,” Winkers said. “This is the extra-exciting part. We have 15 seniors with many of them having played for three years on varsity. Playoff football is the best because it is win or go home.”
