Cary-Grove rolls over Dundee-Crown
Stifling. Check.
Opportunistic. Check.
You get the picture.
The Cary-Grove defense, which allowed Dundee-Crown 1 first down in the first half, put together a stellar effort in the Trojans' 48-6 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division win over the host Chargers Friday night.
"This was the second straight week our defense was outstanding," said Cary-Grove coach Brad Seaburg. "We had good reads all night, we had good pressure on the quarterback and we got a couple of turnovers."
The Trojans (7-1, 3-1), who held the Chargers' offense to 128 total yards and 4 first downs, received 2 crucial interceptions by junior safety David Daigle.
"On both interceptions, we were in really good coverages and the pass rush was excellent," said Daigle. "We worked on covering their bubble routes in practice all week and we did a good job of stopping them. On the interceptions, I was in the right place at the right time. As a defense we are playing well right now."
The balanced Trojan offense managed 285 yards on the ground and 76 through the airwaves for 361 yards of total offense.
The Trojans seized momentum early by scoring on their first three drives of the game.
Ryan Magel scored on a 20-yard run to give the Trojans an early cushion with 3:54 elapsed.
Set up by Daigle's first interception of the game, Tyler Pennington scored the first of 3 touchdowns on a 3-yard run and Cary-Grove led 14-0 with 3:57 left in the first quarter.
Senior quarterback JP Sullivan, who was 5-of-6 for 76 yards, lofted a perfect 15-yard touchdown pass to Jimmy Freskos and the Trojans held a 21-0 lead with 9:38 left before the half.
Pennington led the Trojans with 95 yards on 15 carries and Magel carried the ball 6 times for 81 yards and caught 2 passes for 32 yards.
"The offensive line was tremendous," said Magel. "When I turned the corner on the sweep there was open field. We have played well offensively the last two weeks."
The Chargers' (2-6, 1-3) only score of the game came on a 3-yard run by Greg Williams with 8:06 left in the game. The score was set up by a 55-yard interception return by Scott Wojcik.
"The kids never quit and will never quit," said D-C coach Mike Steinhaus. "Cary-Grove has a great program. Their program is where we want to be."