McHenry holds off Dundee-Crown
Ricky Ibarra, as usual, was Dundee Crown's offensive spark plug in Friday's night clash with Fox Valley Conference foe McHenry.
The junior running back rushed 35 times for 247 yards and scored 2 touchdowns.
But McHenry countered Ibarra with three rushers who gained a combined 305 yards on the ground in the Warriors' 38-25 victory in Carpentersville.
Junior running back Braden Crowley led the trio, rushing 194 yards on 17 carriers and scoring 2 TDs. McHenry quarterback Patrick Breisch ran 9 times for 58 yards and crossed the goal line once. Mikey McManus carried the ball 13 times for 53 yards and also found the end zone.
The Warriors scored on 4 of their 5 first half possessions. McHenry's first drive of the game end with a 32-yard Leo Keane field goal.
"We were able to put points on the board early. That gave us a lot of confidence," said McHenry coach Nat Zunkel. "And when we have Crowley, McManus and Breisch running, they are pretty hard to stop."
The team's second possession ended with Crowley's first score of the night, a 3-yard run giving the Warriors a 10-0 margin after the first 8 minutes.
McHenry (3-4, 2-4) added two more tallies in the second quarter, the first on a 16-yard pass from Breisch to Aaron Wagner and the second a 2-yard Breisch keeper.
In between the Warrior touchdowns, Ibarra put D-C (1-6, 0-6) on the board with a 35-yard run.
A 22-yard pass from Charger quarterback Joshua Raby to Jordan Hairston with 1:27 left in the half pulled D-C within 2 touchdowns at halftime, trailing McHenry 24-12.
Despite controlling the ball for most of the third quarter, the Chargers were only able to score once on Ibarra's 20-yard run up the middle.
Three times during the game, McHenry's defense ended D-C drives deep in Warrior territory by stopping fourth down conversion attempts.
The Warriors also picked off two Raby passes, one in the end zone. Raby completed 11 of 27 passes for 141 yards.
"Our offense has got to finish drives. We know what kind of game we have to win," said D-C coach Mike Steinhaus. "We moved the ball, but we got down in the red zone three, maybe four times and we didn't come out with any points. And when you do that, you can't win the game."
McHenry added two more scores in the last quarter - a 7-yard McManus run and a 4-yard Crowley run.
Raby scored D-C's last TD of the night on a 7-yard run