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Dundee-Crown rallies again, beats McHenry

It took about 19 hours, but the Dundee-Crown Chargers nailed down a second come-from-behind victory to open the season.

The Chargers scored the final 28 points to defeat McHenry, 35-21, in Fox Valley Conference action at the Bowl in Carpentersville.

Big plays were the key for D-C, which scored on 67- and 75-yard runs, a 43-yard pass off a double reverse, and recovered an onside kick to set up a touchdown.

After lightning forced postponement of the game at halftime Friday, the teams reassembled for the second half Saturday afternoon.

The Warriors scored first to go up 21-7 and things looked bleak for the home team. But the game changed completely in 97 seconds.

In that time, Kareem Dunner started to run off tackle, bounced in outside and raced up the sideline 67 yards to make it 21-14. The Chargers then surprised the Warriors with an onside kick, which Alex Lopez recovered for D-C.

Two plays later, the Chargers reached deep into their playbook for a double reverse, ending with a pass from Josh Raby to a wide-open Brad Stec for another score. Christian Alamillo's extra point tied the game.

"That's a play that we kind of stole from the Bears last year, their 2-point conversion. We added a pass to it and we used it last year and it worked," said Raby, who finished 7 of 10 for 129 yards.

Then it was the defense's turn for a big play. Nick Wolfe recovered a fumble on the Warriors' next possession and the Chargers converted it into the go-ahead score. Raby passed 28 yards to Ricky Ibarra to the 1-yard line, then took it over himself.

Ibarra's 75-yard jaunt gave D-C a little insurance. McHenry had 1 more chance, but Craig Martin, Jr. picked off Chris Zieba's pass and the Chargers went into victory formation.

"It's been the process of trying to build a different culture," said D-C coach Mike Steinhaus. "We talked about forming an iron will, and we've been doing it since November, after our season, about fighting through things. Dundee-Crown is known for our kids and our school right now is having a hard time fighting through the tough times, so we're trying to get our kids to do that, and I'm just proud of them because that's what they did."

Dunner ran for 139 yard and Ibarra added 126 for the Chargers. Jack Michalski had 4 catches for 55 yards and scored the Chargers' first touchdown Friday night.

Comebacks are nothing new for the Chargers, who trailed Grayslake North 13-0 before storming back to win the season opener.

It was an up-and-down game for the Chargers' special teams, who muffed a punt before halftime to set up McHenry's go-ahead score and gave up a 78-yard kickoff return by Braden Crowley to start the second half. But after McHenry couldn't punch it in, the Chargers blocked the Warriors' field-goal attempt. D-C also executed beautifully on the onside kick.

Zieba finished 14 of 25 for 171 yards for McHenry, with a touchdown and an interception.

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