Cary-Grove downs Dundee-Crown in opener

Jameson Sheehan broke down Cary-Grove's impressive 51-10 season-opening victory over Dundee-Crown into three simple words.

¨We expect greatness.¨

The Trojans - at least on this steamy Friday night - lived up to their No. 1 state ranking, displaying greatness early and often as they scored touchdowns on their first six drives and amassed 446 total yards - 357 of those on the ground - while the defense did its part in the complete team victory.

Cary was the beneficiary of some early-game big plays as defensive lineman Nick Wojcik intercepted a pass on D-C's first drive of the game while linebacker Zach Petko blocked two punts in the first period to set up C-G with a trio of short fields, leading to a 21-0 first-quarter advantage.

´´The offense played great, the defense played great. And those big plays, well they happen because we make them happen," said Sheehan (2-for-3, 69 yards, 2 TDs). ¨Our team is so dialed in together, that even when mistakes happen we rely on short-term memory. We forget about it. We get back together and say, ´Let's win the next play.´´´

Cary, indeed, won many of the next plays. It scored in the first quarter on Sheehan's 9-yard run, his 22-yard pass to Noah Riley, and Nick Hissong's (9 carries, 82 yards) one-yard run. Wade Abrams added a 10-yard scamper to open the second-quarter scoring followed by a Sheehan-to-Riley 47-yard scoring connection before Sheehan made it 42-0 on a 12-yard dash. Toby Splitt added six extra points and a 37-yard field goal. Jack Rocen (7 carries, 61 yards) completed the scoring barrage with his fine 25-yard scoring run midway through the final quarter.

¨That's a great football team over there. They're well-coached and they played a great game," D-C coach Mike Steinhaus said. For us, it's a good barometer. It's a team we would like to emulate. But we're young. We did see some things that we think we can put together, so we start that (Saturday) morning in film and go from there.¨

D-C got on the board just before halftime thanks to Ashton Ajroja's 32-yard field goal and Anthony Aguilar's electrifying 80-yard kickoff return.

´´We were able to establish the running game. Hissong got going and we executed some nice plays," Cary coach Brad Seaburg said. ´´The scoreboard is not an indicator of execution so we will look at film and look for those areas of execution where we lacked and improve on those in hopes of getting better. But, yes, it's a good win.¨