David Bell, 17, was a multi-sport athlete at Stoughton High School who always had a plan -- and the competitive drive to achieve it.

STOUGHTON — When he wasn't playing sports, David Bell would sit down with his friends and play a game -- or a few -- of UNO.

One of his friends from school would often ask David's mother, Solange Bell, if she wanted to join in when they played at the family's Stoughton home. Her answer was typically no.

But the day after a violent crash claimed her son's life, that's exactly what she did -- played the card game with several of her son's friends.

"His friends came by last night. There were so many kids, they didn't want to leave me," Bell told The Enterprise Monday morning. "They were showing me videos and telling me stories. They asked, 'Can we play UNO with you?' I told them I was ready to play. So that's what we did. They were here until about midnight."

David, a 17-year-old junior at Stoughton High School, was one of four boys -- including 17-year-olds Christopher Desir and Eric Sarblah and 16-year-old Nick Joyce -- who died in a crash in East Bridgewater late Saturday afternoon.

The boys were in a white sedan driving west on Route 106 when the car left the roadway, entered a yard, struck some rocks, hit a brick front porch and propelled into a tree. The driver, who authorities haven't identified, but The Enterprise has learned was 17-year-old NaiQuan Hamilton, was still hospitalized in Boston as of Monday.

David and Nick were best friends, but all five boys were close.

"David loved his friends," Bell said of her son. "He treated them like he treated us -- like family. It didn't matter who you were. He was a loving kid."

Bell said the best way to cope with her loss has been talking about her son and sharing stories with others.

"I'm so grateful for the school and the community. They're helping me keep this together," she said. "I've tried to explain, memories are what you have. They're intangible. You can't touch memories, you can just speak them. I'm speaking David back into existence, the intangible part, I love this so much."

David was a multi-sport athlete at the high school. He played basketball and football the last three years, but had recently joined the track and field team and was competing in sprinting and high jump events. He played Little League baseball growing up, but that was his least favorite of the sports he competed in, his mother said.

"This kid, he went to a college fair recently. He said, 'I'm talking to Clemson, I'm talking to Alabama, Florida State,'" Bell recounted. "I said, 'Kid, you want to slow it down a little bit? That's Division I.' He said, 'No, DI all the way.' I said, 'OK, if that's what you want to shoot for, but there's DIII schools there, too.'"

David was known as a jokester -- and a class clown at times -- but he always had a plan and a vision as high as the sky. And he was a competitor to the core -- so he had the drive to achieve his highest goals.

One of his proudest moments in sports was when he intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown in late October. The Stoughton High football team was the No. 4 seed and playing at home against No. 5-seeded Whitman-Hanson in the Div. 3 South bracket.

With just over two minutes left on the clock, David read a swing pass to the halfback and jumped in front of the ball off the quarterback's hands.

"I saw the ball, saw it go up in the air, one hand caught it and then just came to my stomach and I ran for a touchdown," David said after the game in an interview with Stoughton Media Access Corporation. "Saw the end zone, saw the scoreboard ticking down -- the game's over."

The 71-yard interception return put Stoughton up 30-21 -- the game's final score.

"The pick-six, he was so proud of that," Bell said. "He sat on that thing like a throne. It hurts that I didn't get to see the potential, what would be the result of all this sport-playing."

Bell's last image of her son was when she went to the medical examiner's office to identify his body. Although she said it was devastating, the tragic time left her with a familiar image of her son.

"When I saw my son, he looked strong," she said. "He looked like David, which I'm so grateful for. He looked strong and commanding, like he was going up there to compete."