As the popular saying goes, there is no “I” in “team”, and the Trojans took that to heart Friday night as all three phases of the game led CG to a 23-12 win over the Rockets to start 2023.
The battle against Burlington Central started with the running attack and stayed there, as sophomore fullback Logan Abrams tallied 107 yards on the ground (160 total yards, with 25 carries also), per Tim Froehlig in his Northwest Herald article on the game.
Abrams praised his team and their impact on his performance as he seeks to replicate it week in and week out.
“Just my teammates helping me everyday,” Abrams said. “They’re pushing me, making me better. Without them, I’m nothing.”
Specific members of the team that Logan highlighted were the offensive line, when he was asked about when the running attack was entrusted to him.
“It (the running game) was never really in my hands. It all starts with the offensive line, what they do for me, and every play. There’s no set time. You just do it.”
Senior Andrew Prio found paydirt twice in the first half, and junior Holden Boone kept the offense going with some nice methodical gains as they complemented Abrams’s effort.
“Kids were finishing runs and running hard. We did a really nice job”, Coach Seaburg said.
When the offense had its fair share of struggles, the defense was there to lift the rest of the squad to an even level, as the D pitched a first-half shutout and produced a fourth-down stop early in the game.
“It’s a team sport, and throughout the course of the year, there’s going to be ups and downs,” Coach Seaburg said. “All the different sides of the ball, sometimes they are going to do well and sometimes they’re not.”
Special teams also contributed to the win, as they not only blocked a Rockets punt toward the end of the first half, but Jack Rocen housed a 34-yard punt to extend Cary-Grove’s lead to 23-0 in the third.
There were plenty of small moments that came about prior to that punt return for a touchdown, and Coach Seaburg emphasized a couple of important things that let their special teams score occur.
“One, the punt that led up to that. I don’t know how far Peyton (Seaburg)’s punt was, but that went down to inside the ten. The defense was able to get a three-and-out, and then that forced a punt on a short field.”
Overall, Cary-Grove lifted each other with all three phases, and the Trojans will bring their squad down to Crystal Lake Central for week two, aiming to begin 2023 at a 2-0 mark.