Most football games you watch today, especially NFL games, rely on the passing game to move the offense. Teams attempt to move the ball more with the quarterback slinging it rather than gaining positive plays on the ground. 

(You know I’m not talking about you, Tennessee Titans. Derrick Henry is your offense.) 

The philosophy NFL teams use today on offense is not the Cary-Grove Trojans philosophy. The ground game, to this year’s Cary-Grove Trojans squad, is the way they roll. 

“Right now they’re executing at a really high level, and we’ll hope it continues,” Head Coach Brad Seaburg said about the Trojans run game. 

The run game has this Trojans team to a 4-0 start, and the offensive line starts the whole process. 

“I have liked how quick they are,” Coach Seaburg said. “I like how they get off the ball, play with low pads. Our guys compete and they play low.” 

A big test for this dominant squad comes in the form of undefeated Prairie Ridge, who come to CG in Saturday’s Homecoming game. Although a soft initial schedule has yet to seriously challenge Prairie Ridge, they are still going to be physical and tough to contain. 

“Hopefully we can stop them,” Coach Seaburg said. “They’re a good team, and it’s going to be tough for us to stop them and get the ball. Hopefully we can do that.” 

The offense is likely to have its struggles against PR’s defense Saturday, but Coach Seaburg doesn’t see a need to change their approach from what has been working. 

“We’d like to continue to have some explosive plays where we can score pretty quickly,” he said.

COVID has led to a lot of uncertainty in the past two years, but now that a regular high school football season is back, it feels good to have the predictability of a red-hot 4-0 start. A 4-0 start is pretty common for the Cary-Grove football teams from the past, as well as this year’s squad, as has them on the cusp of playoff eligibility.

“It’s a good thing for our guys to kinda show what their hard work has meant so far,” Coach Seaburg said. “We’re one step closer to getting where we want to be, which is into the playoffs. If we can get our 5th win on Saturday, then we would be in the playoffs, so that’s our first goal.”

As tempting as it might be to look ahead and start thinking of a deep playoff run, Coach Seaburg keeps his team focused on the next step. That humble approach led him to earn his 100th win as head coach for Cary-Grove on Friday night by topping McHenry.

“I’ve been around some great teams, great players, great coaches, great parents who let their kids play for us,” Coach Seaburg said of the milestone. “I think it’s just a testament to the amount of work our coaches and kids put into the program.” 

With a tough test in PR on deck for Saturday, Coach Seaburg let the impending playoff berth or his own success change the way the team prepares for the game.

“We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”