use the_date to only display date once

Have modified posts-to-page.php in an attempt to use the_date to display the month only once for posts created in that month:

foreach($displayposts as $post){
if($dataFlags[“tag_wrap”]){
$html .= ‘<‘ . $dataFlags[“tag_wrap”] . ‘ class=”‘ . $dataFlags[“class_wrap”] . ‘”>’ . PHP_EOL;
}
$html .= ‘<‘ . $dataFlags[“tag_title”] . ‘ class=”‘ . $dataFlags[“class_title”] . ‘”>’;
if($boolFlags[“show_month”]){
$html .= ‘<h2 class=”dateheader”>’ . the_date(‘F’, ‘<h2 class=”dateheader”>’, ‘</h2>’) . ‘</h2>’;
}

But only the date from the first post ever gets displayed???

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/posts-to-page/