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Dundee-Crown tied with Crystal Lake Central in suspended game

Dundee-Crown and Crystal Lake Central finished their Fox Valley Conference game tied at 35 on Friday night. The game will resume at 10 a.m. Saturday with 9 minutes, 51 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

The Chargers (3-3, 2-3) scored on each of their first three possessions of the game, and they took all of two plays to get on the board. The first was a 16-yard lateral from Josh Raby to Kareem Dunner that placed the ball on the Tigers' 38. From there Ricky Ibarra took it around left end and Dundee-Crown led 7-0 just 90 seconds into the game.

But Crystal Lake Central (1-5, 1-4) showed that they were up to the challenge. Taking over at their own 21, Ellinger led a 10-play, 79-yard drive that was capped by a 4-yard plunge by Coss. Kyle Hush's point after sailed wide left and the Chargers held a slim 7-6 lead.

On the ensuing possession Raby pitched to Ibarra, who this time galloped around the right end from 12 yards out to make it 14-6. After the Tigers went three and out, Ibarra did all the work, popping for 43 yards to the Crystal Lake Central 15 on the first snap and finishing it on the next to make it 21-6.

The Tigers again responded. After a 36-yard strike from Ellinger to Drew Jenkins, who ran a perfect post pattern, Coss scored on a 21-yard sweep to the right with 1:40 left. That closed the books on a raucous first quarter with Dundee-Crown on top, 21-13.

After the Chargers turned the ball over on downs to start the second quarter, Ellinger and Jenkins connected on another post pattern, this time from 33 yards out. The two-point conversion failed, but Crystal Lake Central had pulled within 21-19, and there it stood at halftime.

Ellinger really took matters in his own hands on the opening possession of the third quarter. Starting from his own 18, Ellinger engineered a 13-play drive that consumed more than half of the quarter, capping it with a 21-yard completion to Caleb Moszkiewicz with 5:57 left. Ellinger connected with White on the deuce conversion to finally give the Tigers the lead at 27-21.

But, alas for the Crystal Lake Central faithful, Raby and Ibarra were not quite finished. After a pair of 7-yard carries by Ibarra and a 14-yard pass to Justin Prusko, Raby gave it to Dunner, who exploded up the middle on a 42-yard scoring jaunt that put Dundee-Crown back on top, 28-27.

It had begun to rain, and two snaps later Ellinger dropped back to pass, but when his arm drew back behind his ear the ball kept going backward. The Chargers pounced on the loose ball, and after a pair of Dunner runs that netted just three yards, Raby spotted Jordan Hairston streaking down the left sideline, beyond the Crystal Lake Central defense. The 86-yard scoring strike pushed the Chargers to a 35-27 lead with 2:01 left in the third. Seventy-one seconds later the light show started and the game stopped.

After a delay of an hour or so, the officials made a good faith effort to finish the game - and Ellinger mad the most of the opportunity. Restarting with a first-and-15 from the Dundee-Crown 37, Ellinger kept the ball on the ground and finally gave it to Jenkins, who swept around the right side and into the end zone from the 4. Ellinger did the honors himself on the two-point conversion to tie it at 35-35 with 9:51 to play.

The lightning returned before the Tigers could kick off.

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