Dougherty died on Wednesday, Oct. 15, two days after collapsing from a brain hemorrhage during a junior varsity game at Don Bosco Prep.

In front of the school’s message board, Dougherty’s mother, Marinalva Schnarr, wore her late son’s No. 44 royal blue jersey, bursting into tears as she addressed the crowd.

"Thank you for being friends with my baby," Schnarr said, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks. "Keep going forward. Keep your goals," she urged the hundreds of grieving students.

Before the procession, people passed out bright green "Donate Life" bracelets in support of Dougherty’s parents’ decision to donate his organs.

"I told the doctors, take my brain and give him my brain," Schnarr said, recalling the moment doctors told her Dougherty was unlikely to recover.

"I told them, take my heart, and give him my heart."

Teenagers held each other arm-in-arm as they listened. Girls burst out in tears.

Teammates could no longer hold back emotion.

Trying to keep from crying, schoolmate Delaney McDonald said to the crowd, as if speaking to Dougherty, "I woke up Wednesday morning, and I knew I had to see you."

McDonald recalled how Dougherty usually spotted her car after school, and how they blasted tunes on the radio.

"If you were here with me tonight, I’d sing to you one more time," she said.

Teammates huddled together and raised their candles, vowing to win a State championship for Dougherty.

One football player shouted, "It’s a battlefield out there." Another, remembering Monday’s game, said, "Ryne saved the touchdown on that tackle. That’s the memory I have."

Sixteen-year-old Tunmise Odufuye, an MHS sophomore who was close friends with Dougherty, said, "God loved him more than we did."

"We have to come together for him -- not just today or the day he died. It has to be everyday," Odufuye said.

Javon Ratliff, 15, who sat near Dougherty in history class, described his fallen classmate as a "big brother" who carried a positive mindset.

"He was a mentor to everyone not only on the field, but off the field," Ratliff said. "If you ever needed someone to talk to, he would always listen," he said.

With hundreds of candles lit, the solemn procession began on Woodman Field at Essex Avenue and proceeded up Chestnut Street.

"It’s sad to lose one of our own," said 17-year-old MHS student Rachel Bradford, who knew Dougherty mostly through the school’s Civics and Government Institute, a small learning community where students develop leadership skills. "He was completely passionate about his sport," she said.

Katherine Carpenter, 17, who shared an elective class with Dougherty, said counselors were on hand during the past couple of days to help students grappling with his death.

"The class is so boring without him," Carpenter said. "All we used to talk about was football."

Times sports editor Brian Smith contributed to this article.