Crestwood keeps Darlington winless on the year
By Drake Horton
Contributing Writer
It was another game and another loss for the Darlington Falcons football team at home this past Friday night.
Squaring off against the Crestwood Knights, Darlington, while playing its best game of the year defensively, struggled offensively, as the Falcons ended up on the wrong end of 24-8 contest.
While the defense has had its own problems this season, the offense has struggled even more, coming into the game only scoring once in three games and with its leading rusher, Javorius Williams, out due to injury, there was not much the Falcons could ever do to get going.
Defensively, though, Darlington really put forward its best effort of the season, giving up 24 points, with 14 of those points coming in the second quarter.
“I felt like defensively they played hard,” Darlington head coach Raymond Jennings said. “We didn’t tackle well and we almost gave up some big throws and stuff.”
Crestwood broke a scoreless tie in the first quarter with a 37-yard field goal and it never looked back.
In the second quarter the Knights went up 10-0 on a 14-yard post-corner reception in the back of the end zone and added to that with a 9-yard rushing touchdown with just 2:26 left before the half.
Following the Knights’ score that extended their lead to 17-0, Darlington fumbled with just 1:37 left in the second quarter, and if it had not been dropped touchdown passes that eventually resulted in a turnover on downs, Crestwood’s lead would have grown even more before halftime.
Coming out of the break, the Falcons’ defense stifled any rhythm that Crestwood had going on offense, keeping the Knights off the scoreboard in the third quarter. Unfortunately, the Falcons’ offense was also held scoreless, extending its scoreless streak to seven quarters.
Crestwood extended its lead to 24 in the fourth quarter on a 6-yard touchdown reception with 3:31 left in the game, but it was in the fourth that Darlington, with less than 30 players on the sidelines and starters banged up, dug deep and showed that it was not ready to mail it in quite yet.
Not wanting to get shut out for a third time this season, the Falcons’ defense, which had played pretty well for a majority of the night, forced a fumble and recovered with just 47.1 seconds left in the game.
Starting on Crestwood’s 32-yard line, Darlington finally put together an offensive drive that showed life.
“Offensively we looked a little differently, hopefully,” Jennings said.
“We didn’t move the ball at times well, but we are trying to change because we think the future of this building is in those type kids. So you saw us spreading the field a little bit more.”
The loss drops Darlington to 0-4 on the year as it gets ready to wrap up its non-conference schedule as it takes on the South Florence Bruins this Friday night at home.
