DARLINGTON — At long last, the 2020 high school football season kicked off in Wisconsin Sept. 25. At Martens Field in Darlington, the host Redbirds walked away with an impressive 34-21 win over River Valley.

“It’s such a great feeling. The crowd, under the lights; it’s just a good feeling to get back out here and I’m happy that we got the opportunity to do it,” Darlington senior Carter Lancaster said.

After the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the start of the season — and led to about 1/3 of all Wisconsin schools moving their seasons to the alternative 2021 spring season — the Redbirds were just happy to get back onto the gridiron. The uncertainty and instability of the fall season followed the team all the way up to game day. Twenty games from around the state scheduled for Week 1 were postponed or canceled because of the pandemic. 

“I think we were all excited to play, and just to have a season in general. A lot of teams in our area moved to the spring,” said junior Braden Davis.

Across the street from Darlington High School, the middle school shut down the day before due to positive tests, which prompted the Thursday night volleyball match against Mineral Point to be postponed.

It was exciting all week. We were hoping to get here and we were kind of on edge, and nervous we’d get to play,” Darlington head coach Travis Winkers said. “We played well.”

From pregame warmups, to the national anthem and then the opening whistle of the season, each moment made the butterflies churn a little harder for Davis, now in his third year as the starting quarterback for Darlington.

“I was really nervous,” Davis said. “I think there were some first-game jitters, and once I got dialed in it was all good.”

As early nerves departed, Davis had arguably the best game of his career. He connected on 11 of 15 passes for 120 yards and four touchdowns. He’s the first Redbird to throw for four TDs in a game since Zach McArthur in a win over Boscobel in 2011.

The Blackhawks, with nearly twice the enrollment and two divisions larger than Darlington, went 11-2 and reached Level 4 in the Division 4 playoffs in 2019. 

Darlington was unphased, even though River Valley opened the game with a 68-yard drive on eight plays that resulted in a touchdown. The Redbirds had nearly forced a 3-and-out, but the Blackhawks converted on fourth-and-1 from their own 41. Four plays later, quarterback Will Bailey was flushed to his right and chucked a deep pass to Cole White for a 35-yard score, 5:02 into the contest.

Darlington’s players didn’t sulk, and instead answered almost immediately.

“We were confident in what we were doing. They were just mental mistakes, and things that are easy to clean up. We were able to adjust and clean them up,” Davis said. “Our coaches do a great job of putting us into position to do what we need to do, and that happened again tonight.”

A methodical start to the drive worked the Redbirds across midfield, then senior Carter Lancaster took a pitch to his left and darted up the sideline, only to be pushed out of bounds at the 2-yard-line. Two plays later, Easton Evenstad plunged forward up the middle to even the score at 6.

“Last year we needed to score early to even get that confidence; the fact that we answered early let them know that we can play. We’ve got a good group this year,” Winkers said.

River Valley’s next drive lasted 11 plays, but the Blackhawks turned the ball over on downs when Evenstad broke up a deep pass down the sidelines. Both teams then swapped punts before Darlington got the ball back and took its first lead of the game. 

The Redbirds opened their third possession of the game at the River Valley 30 after pinning the Blackhawks deep and then being the recipient of a weak punt. The drive nearly stalled, however, and Darlington faced a fourth-and-7 from the 14. Davis, in the shotgun, threw to his right and connected with Lancaster for the 14-yard score. 

Leading 14-6, the Redbirds wasted a prime opportunity late in the second quarter. Breylin Goebel pulled in a miraculous tip-drill interception to give Darlington the ball at the River Valley 36, but on the second play of the drive, a mishap on the snap resulted in a lost fumble. 

Over the final 4:46 of the half, River Valley collected 55 yards on eight plays. There were four penalty flags thrown and two timeouts called. With just one second left on the clock at the snap, Bailey completed a fourth-down conversion for 13 yards on a fade pass to Max Solomon for a 13-yard score as time expired. Bailey then ran in a two-point conversion to tie the score at 14 headed into halftime.

The Darlington coaches chose not to scold their players during the break, instead trusting that the Redbirds understood mistakes were made and the second half had to be cleaner.

“He said it was a tie game, we need to pick our heads up. They are a good team, we are a good team, but we feel like we are better,” Lancaster said.

Winkers turned to his experienced leaders to make the difference in the second half, and that’s just what they did. Lancaster electrified the crowd and the sidelines with a kick return that nearly reached midfield. 

“The return was a fake — it was supposed to go to Easton on the reverse, but he kind of bobbled it and made the right choice,” Winkers said.

Four snaps later, Lancaster ran up the sideline again for a 25-yard game to put Darlington into the red zone. He nearly had a score two plays later, but the touchdown was called back for a holding. Lancaster was shaken up on the play, briefly worrying teammates. Two snaps later, on third-and-12, Lancaster caught a pass in the seam and stretched the ball out with his hand across the goal line for the 20-yard score.

This time, Darlington didn’t let River Valley tie the score. On the first Blackhawks snap, Zach Gloudeman was tackled for a loss. On the next play, Ethan Hendrickson pressured Bailey, who fumbled when pursued by Cayden Rankin. Though River Valley recovered the ball, the loss of 12 and a false start on the next play had the Blackhawks facing a ghastly third-and-28. Bailey threw the next pass out of bounds and a punt gave Darlington the ball at its own 44 with 5:52 left in the third quarter.

Both teams traded possessions again, with the River Valley offense struggling to do much of anything outside of a 25-yard reception that saw Davis and Rankin go down briefly with leg cramps.

“I’m playing both ways this year and I’m not used to it. I don’t think I had gotten enough fluids in me,” Davis said.

When Darlington got the ball back, the offense returned to work. Lancaster picked up 16 yards on another pitch to put the Redbirds at the 30, and Rankin followed with an 11-yard run on the next play. Snapping the ball with one second left on the running clock in the third, Davis went over the middle on another seam route, this time connecting with Rankin for an uncontested score. The extra point by Cole Crist made it 28-14 Darlington headed into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Redbird offense stalled when it shouldn’t have. Back-to-back bubble screen passes went for negative yardage, prompting Winkers to yell from the sideline that his players “got to run the play right.”

On the next snap, Davis read the defense correctly, and instead of hitting the bubble receiver, hit Hunter Hardyman wide open down the field on a fly for a 39-yard score. The Blackhawks never picked Hardyman up on the snap.

“Game 1 miscommunication,” Winkers explained. “We tried to run that same play to the left side, a bubble-and-go, and we threw the bubble instead. If we had thrown to the go, we probably would have scored a play earlier, but we got it. That’s going to happen Week 1.”

“Huge play, and honestly it felt like a dagger,” Lancaster said. “I was just happy to see him get into the end zone. All of us skill players love watching each other get into the end zone. It was a fun time tonight.”

River Valley did score one more time on the next possessions, going 92 yards on eight plays against a modest prevent-defense. However, the Redbirds did enough to minimize the threat down the stretch, which included Lancaster recovering the onside kick attempt at midfield.

Lancaster finished the night with four catches for 41 yards and two touchdowns, and five carries for a game-high 82 yards. Davis had 35 yards rushing on nine carries, and Rankin finished with 52 rushing yards on eight runs. Rankin added 45 yards through the air on four catches. Defensively, Rankin had a sack and six tackles, while Evenstad led the Redbirds with 10 tackles.

Bailey finished the night 21 of 42 passing for 312 yards, three TDs and one interception. He also led the Blackhawks with 28 rushing yards. Tyler Nachreiner led River Valley with eight catches for 124 yards.

Up next for Darlington is a road game at Dodgeville (0-1), which was blown out 42-7 by Mineral Point in its opener.

“We’ve been a younger team the last few years, and coming into this year, our senior and junior classes have tons of experience and really know how varsity football goes. We were able to play well,” Davis said. “We’re really glad to play this year. We’ll come back focused on Monday to get ready for Dodgeville.”