For the second year in a row, the Dartmouth High School football team beat Bishop Stang in the Battle of Slocum Road. Dartmouth beat Bishop Stang with a score of 34-0.

“It’s a pretty serious subject,” one senior at Dartmouth said.

The game, which took place on Friday, Sept. 6, was also the first of each team’s seasons.

“You always want to win the first one because it sets the tone for the rest of the season,” Dartmouth High School head football coach Rick White said. “It’s tough to start with a loss.”

White said one of the biggest moments of the game was when his players stopped a fourth down.

“That was the closest [Stang] got and we were able to stop them there,” he said. “That sealed the game for us.”

Looking ahead, Bishop Stang head coach Dennis Golden said his team will look at what they did well and what they need to correct.

Next week, Bishop Stang plays against Old Rochester Regional High School in what is their only other local game.

“We play two local games early on,” Golden said. “They mean a lot to the kids, and they mean a lot to the community.”

“We’re just trying to get ready for the long haul,” Golden said.

For the students at Dartmouth High School, the game is more than just a kick off to the season. Located just minutes apart, Dartmouth and Bishop Stang are fierce rivals.

“It’s almost like territory,” one Dartmouth student said. “We need to win our territory.”

Kids come from both schools, and it brings one of the biggest crowds of the year, according to White.

“You got bragging rights for the rest of the year,” White said. “That’s the good part of it.”

Students at Dartmouth take the rivalry seriously. In the school’s weight room there’s a board counting down the days to Bishop Stang games, according to Olivia Crane, 17.

“They’re like our arch nemesis,” Sophia Litos, 17, said, “It’s not that we hate them, it’s just kind of fun banter.”