It’s rare that Friday night football is able to align with two factors: terrible weather and October 13th. The Trojans and Crystal Lake South Gators were fortunate – or unfortunate – to play in those two facets as Cary-Grove overcame a scary start to win 47-21.
The Trojans lost a fumble on their first play on offense, leading to a Crystal Lake South lead of 7-0 two minutes in. After that, CG fumbled the ensuing kickoff, and the Gators were in position to take an early lead of at least 10, perhaps even 14.
For Cary-Grove, they knew what they had to do in order to regroup, and they executed on those things.
“The message was just we gotta take care of the ball and pick each other up,” Coach Brad Seaburg said.
Cary-Grove didn’t fold and certainly picked each other up, forcing a fourth-down stop, and it was off to the races from there.
With the sloppy weather conditions, offense was not expected to be a big factor on Friday night, but the Trojans made it the exact opposite, notching 47 points as Andrew Prio scored twice and Logan Abrams had four touchdowns.
“We blocked really well up front,” Coach Seaburg said. “Guys were just grinding out there. It was great.”
The more expected defensive execution came into play for CG, only allowing three touchdowns and really stifling an efficient passing offense that the Gators brought into Al Bohrer Field.
“We did a nice job,” Coach Seaburg said. “We got a lot of turnovers on downs. I thought the defense was really sticking them tonight, too.”
At an impressive 6-2 record after a 3-6 year in 2022, Coach Seaburg is proud of how hard the team has worked up to this point as the playoffs draw near.
“We’ve come to practice every week working hard and trying to get better,” he said. “I think we’ve improved every week, and that’s all you can really ask for.”