Dartmouth celebrates football, cheer and band seniors
A football player runs through a banner. Photos by Kat Sheridan
The cheer team encourage the crowd. 
A player runs with the ball. 
The band performs the halftime "Caged."
The drum section. 
The band performs the halftime "Caged."
The band begins their halftime. 
Brendan Martin catches the ball. 
Brendan Martin goes for the touchdown. 
The crowd with a flag. 
The crowd catches candy thrown by the cheerleaders. 
The crowd was filled with fans of the players. 
River (9) and Declan (7) cheer on the players. 
Chaiddie Rincoln Flores, Ava Nicholson and Isabella Cardoso. 
Chaiddie Rincoln Flores, Taylor Beauparland and Isabella Cardoso. 
The cheerleaders in a stunt.
A football player runs through a banner. Photos by Kat Sheridan
The cheer team encourage the crowd.
A player runs with the ball.
The band performs the halftime "Caged."
The drum section.
The band performs the halftime "Caged."
The band begins their halftime.
Brendan Martin catches the ball.
Brendan Martin goes for the touchdown.
The crowd with a flag.
The crowd catches candy thrown by the cheerleaders.
The crowd was filled with fans of the players.
River (9) and Declan (7) cheer on the players.
Chaiddie Rincoln Flores, Ava Nicholson and Isabella Cardoso.
Chaiddie Rincoln Flores, Taylor Beauparland and Isabella Cardoso.
The cheerleaders in a stunt.
The football and cheer teams along with the marching band celebrated their seniors during the Friday, Oct. 30 game. The football team faced off against New Bedford High School, and lost 52 to 20.
“It’s always bittersweet, it’s their last time around here,” said head coach Rick White, “It’s good to celebrate them and their contributions to our program. They meant a lot to our team and to the schools.”
There are seven seniors on the football team; Aidan Gendron, Max Goldisten, Chase Afonso, Thomas Pallatroni, Jordy Gonzalez, Andrew Chase and Lucas DeMello.
“Feels pretty good [to be a senior,]” said Pallatroni, “Especially as a captain, it’s a lot different.”
Pallatroni remembers starting on the junior varsity teams and working his way to varsity and eventually to captain.
The cheerleaders celebrated their three seniors; Ava Nicholson, Isabella Cardoso and Chaiddie Rincon Flores.
“Luckily I still have a few weeks with [the seniors,” said head coach Rebecca Braga, “I remember when they were freshmen and now they’re already a senior. I feel like it just happened a month ago.”
During the game the cheerleaders showed off their stunts and engaged the crowd with a number of cheers. To celebrate Halloween, the cheer team threw candy to the crowd.
The team has been doing well this season, with two competitive teams. Both teams placed in the first competition, with the performance team placing first and the game day team got second.
“It’s a very bittersweet moment,” said Cardoso, “I’ve loved all the years that I’ve done it, and I love the girls. And just seeing all the girls graduate kind of feels like a little bit surreal. But I’m happy to move on to new chapters, but I’m sad that I have to leave.”
The six band seniors were also celebrated during the game; Jaxon Anuszczyk, Harrison Lisa, Nicholas Hutson, Jake Nunes, Sam Jansen and Kyra Sanborn.
The band performed their number, “Caged,” for the halftime show. The theme is breaking out of constraints, which happens literally during the show. The show starts with all of the kids in a cage, which they slowly start to escape.
Eventually only one soloist is left within the cage, flapping her wings. She eventually escapes and the cage is pulled apart, with the students performing around the pieces.
“We’re going to miss this class of seniors,” said band director Marielle Chrupcala, “We have some really, really incredible players and some really role model students that we’re going to be waving goodbye to. So it’ll be a shame, but they’ve more than left their legacy on the band.”
The football game started strong, with White stating it was “back and forth in the first half.”
He added that during the course of the game, both quarterbacks were injured, putting Dartmouth at a disadvantage.
The game did not start well, with senior quarterback Aidan Gendron getting tackled and hurting his right ankle. The game was paused for around 15 minutes as he was taken off the field. The quarter ended soon after with Dartmouth having the lead with six points to zero.
The second quarter was close up, with Dartmouth scoring a touchdown in the first few seconds. The score was tied at 20-20 until the last few seconds, when New Bedford took the lead with a touchdown and a conversion.
“They played very well today,” said White, “I thought we gave them a good battle in the first half.”
