In football, there is a classic saying that “Defense wins championships.” Last night, however, that classic remark was put to bed, as the Cary-Grove Trojans offense said “Hold my water.” 

A single digit summed up the first half: 7. Cary-Grove ran a total of seven offensive plays in the first half. Seven plays that resulted in 35 points. 

“We blocked really well, and we got the ball to our guys that have really good speed, and they were able to make some really nice plays,” Head Coach Brad Seaburg said of the wildly efficient first-half plays, all of which were runs.

“Usually if you run only seven offensive plays, you typically don’t score as many points as we did, so it was good that we were able to score when we did.” 

Yes, seven offensive plays in one half usually don’t result in many points. A single scoring drive typically takes more plays than that. So what in the world caused this short-drive-and-score theme against a previously unbeaten opponent?

Nothing, apparently. To Coach Seaburg, working towards last night’s game was as normal as it could be. 

“Just had our normal week of practice, the guys worked hard and they had a good practice on Monday, and came out and had a good week,” he said.

The defense stayed as it has all season, a strong presence, with a pick-6 north of 50 yards by senior free safety Richard Moser to give Cary-Grove a 42-0 lead heading into halftime. 

The game was offensive spark, defensive control, however, as the Trojans capped the win on a last-minute touchdown run near the goal line. 

This dominant, fun game ended with the home squad on top, beating the Crystal Lake Central Tigers by a final score of 48-14. 

Crystal Lake Central had some positive things to build on heading into their next game, against the Hampshire Whip-Purs. 

After the Tigers starting quarterback Colton Madura left last night’s game with an injury early, Jason Penza, their sophomore wide receiver, stepped in to quarterback, throwing two good touchdowns to Charlie Fleming. 

Despite those nice moments for the Tigers, the Trojans all-around dominated this game, sending the fans in attendance home cheerful. 

“We executed great on offense, on defense we held them to 0 until the fourth quarter, just a great overall win as a team,” said senior running back Wade Abrams, who ran for a touchdown in the win. “We won just how we wanted to win, and we’re week to week. Next week we’ll watch film and we’ll execute what we want to do, and our plan is to do what we do every week.” 

Those high expectations of weekly excellence are the burden of every CG football team. So far, this year’s squad has lived up to them.

“Cary-Grove (starting strong), that’s kinda the expectation and that’s how we feel the expectation should be,” Abrams said. “It feels great (to be 3-0).”

We will find out if Cary-Grove keeps those expectations where they should be, as their next game is a little softer than the last two. The Trojans will take on the winless McHenry Warriors in McHenry this Friday, September 17, at 7 p.m. 

If you are able, come out and support your Trojans and try to cheer them on to a hot 4-0 start. If this game taught us anything, it’s that you can’t afford to miss a play — there may not be that many of them.