Darien High School’s annual homecoming football game tradition is one of the most eventful games of the season, and definitely the game with the most spirit. This year’s game fell on Friday, October 19th, 2024; a home game against St. Joseph High School based in Trumbull CT.
As of October 2024, Darien High School is Ranked #1 for Class L High School Football, according to Sports Illustrated. Darien had a record of 3-1 before the homecoming game with their only loss being to Windsor during a tough double OT loss.
The St. Joseph Hogs, ranked #13 in Fairfield County, had a perfect record of 4-0 and were determined to keep it that way. But the Blue Wave football team’s strong perseverance, relentless support from the bleachers, and homecoming spirit from the student section broke their winning streak. After Darien won Friday’s game 14-0, both the Wave and Hogs were left with a record of 4-1.
Heres how the game played out:
After a typical anticlimactic first quarter went by, the score being 0-0 for it’s entirety, the second quarter brought in some interesting and nerve racking plays.
2:02 minutes into the second quarter, Junior WR Thomas Herget (#29) made a 5-yard touchdown run, giving Darien the lead of 7-0.
This lead was threatened due to the quick and unexpected St. Joes touchdown by Senior TJ Wright (#8) which was carried out shortly after the Darien touchdown.
Fortunately, this scare of a play was called back due to holding on St. Joes, taking their six points off the board.
A similar event occurred a few weeks earlier at the Windsor vs. Darien game when the Windsor Bobcats returned a kickoff for a touchdown but was again called back due to holding on the Bobcats Sophomore Javonni Reynolds (#25).
The third quarter gave them some comfort when Senior captain Kevin Roche (#81) made it 13-0 with a 35-yard touchdown pass.
Following that, Senior Kicker Edwinn Rapp successfully completed the extra point, making it 14-0.
This play by this Senior wide receiver and kicker had the student section raving, but there was still possibility for St. Joes to tie up the game since there was another quarter to play.
Thanks to Darien’s defensive line’s strong performances which were applauded as a whole overall and was awarded player of the game, the score remained 14-0 for the remainder, giving the Blue Wave the win everyone was anticipating.
Although this was the Waves lowest scoring game of the season, it didn’t matter because they took down one of the states top teams. Don’t sleep on the Blue Wave defense.
Sources:
https://www.si.com/high-school/stats/connecticut/football/rankings
DAF game stream link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67CfootAHPI&t=7428s
