This past Friday, the varsity football team played Pepperell at Pepperell and lost 21-48. Since this is one of our biggest rival schools, it made the loss more personal. At Pepperell, the student section theme was “Preppy Night,” and putting salt into the wound, Pepperell students wore Darlington uniform skirts, shorts, and polos to mock our uniform. Here are the thoughts some of the team members had.

“I would say the strategy and a little bit of the team was the problem last Friday night. I was just kind of mad the whole time because we were losing and I knew that we had the players and the talent to beat them,” junior Bodie Powers said. “I’m pretty mad about the way we played. We could have done a lot better if we had done what we were supposed to do, and if our offensive strategy had been better.”

Sophomore Levi Duggan, who is the quarterback, and a teammate of Powers, agrees with him that the team overall didn’t play the best, but for the playoffs, they will regroup and regather in their bye week to do their best.

“I don’t think we played hard enough, and not physically enough. I think as the team we didn’t play our best, we didn’t play together,” Duggan said. “I was kind of frustrated, but you know I had to keep playing, and to keep on with that next play mentality. We have a bye week and then play Heard County in two weeks.”

The team didn’t have a good start which led to falling behind, and from there losing the whole game. With the bye week coming up, as the players mentioned, they will have time to work and regroup for the next game, which is an advantage. Along with the team not playing their best, when they looked up they saw the Pepperell students in our uniforms some of the team became mad while others laughed it off.

“I think we lost so bad because as a team we didn’t execute,” sophomore Zaiden Simpson said. “We also messed up on a lot of the plays and didn’t start off good. While we were losing I thought to not get in my head, don’t get frustrated or mad. I think losing is going to help us because it’s better to lose sometimes and learn from your mistakes. When I saw the uniforms I just laughed at it. I had already heard so I wasn’t mad about it. I just thought it was corny.”