Tigers rolling toward region football play

As the non-region schedule came to an end Friday night for Darlington, it appears the Tigers and Wayne Groves are heading into Region 6-AA play next week exactly where they want to be — rolling full speed downhill.

Darlington dominated in every aspect of the contest Friday, romping to an 48-6 victory over visiting Sonoraville on Jerry Sharp Field at Chris Hunter Stadium.

The Tigers (2-1) jumped out to a 20-0 lead after one quarter and continued the momentum in the second, scoring 21 more points to take a 41-0 lead to the locker room at the half and force the running clock over the final two quarters.

“I’m telling you, it’s been three weeks since we played at home, and our kids were super fired up to play at home in front of this home crowd,” said Groves. “We had a good student section here and, man, they didn’t disappoint. They’ve been excited about this one for a long time, and I think we just got rolling early and we got some breaks and then kind of got the momentum and Sonoraville couldn’t recover.

“Each game we’ve gotten a little better, and I thought our opponents had gotten a little better after we played Christian Heritage. Starting region play (next week), this is where you kind of want to be. You want to improve. You want the kids to have some momentum and then hopefully we can just keep it rolling.”

The Darlington starters only played one series offensively in the third quarter, and finished off a perfect night with another touchdown to go 7-for-7 on scoring drives.

Darlington’s option offense was close to unstoppable in Friday’s game with several different players the recipient of great blocking up front and great decision-making by senior quarterback Nate Kunczewski as five different players shared the seven touchdowns.

Kunczewski was front and center in the Tigers’ offensive success with a pair of rushing touchdowns and a pair of passing touchdowns. The senior finished with 39 yards on the ground on six carries and 102 yards through the air on 4-of-5 passing.

Matias Selle was Darlington’s leading rusher with 83 yards on 13 carries, and Bo Powers added 58 yards on three carries, including a 45-yard touchdown run. Levi Duggan was impactful as a runner and receiver, rushing for 46 yards and two touchdowns and catching two passes for 49 yards and a touchdown.

Trey Moore had the other touchdown for Darlington, catching a 56-yard TD pass from Kunczewski in the first quarter.

“Our offensive staff, they do a phenomenal job, and that’s what makes that option fun to watch,” said Groves. “When you can get the dive going, and they take the dive and you can pitch it out there and you may have to make them defend the whole field and give those defenses different looks. So I thought our offensive staff did a phenomenal job of giving them different looks.”

Darlington’s defense did the job as well Friday, limiting Sonoraville (0-3) to just 115 total yards with much of that coming in the second half once the Tigers’ backups had entered the game.

Darlington’s defense came up with a fumble recovery in the first half with Ward Jennings coming away with the ball and added a second turnover on special teams as Caleb Covington blocked a Sonoraville punt with Ty Wood coming up with the recovery deep in Phoenix territory.

“We didn’t give up a score (with our starters), which is very hard to do in Georgia high school football, especially against a team like Sonorville,” said Groves. “But our kids played extremely hard. They played with passion. They played with energy. We’ve been talking about that. You can’t play defense without those things, and then we played pretty good fundamental defense at times too, so I was very proud of them.”

Sonoravilles’ lone score of the game came in the fourth quarter on a 28-yard touchdown pass from Peyton Hufstetler to Jacob Hood.

Darlington will open region play next Friday with a short trip to Lindale to battle rival Pepperell at 7:30 p.m.

“It’s another game, but you know it’s not another game,” said Groves. “You know our kids will be fired up. You know they know those kids over there. They grew up with them. They play all sports against them, so it’ll be a competitive game. It’ll be a great atmosphere, and it’ll be a physical contest. And it’ll be fun for the kids and the fans.

“You never know (what’s going to happen). You’re three games in, and that’s why you play a full region schedule to see who’s the best at the end. And with our playoff situation, we don’t necessarily have to win the region. We’ve just got to be getting better each week and get ready for our playoffs. Hopefully we can be a spoiler in our region for a couple of folks along the way.”

This article was originally published by Alex Farrer in the Rome News-Tribune on Sept. 15, 2026.