Last Friday night was “new game, same formula” for the Trojans against the Warriors. After Cary-Grove went out to a blazing 29-0 lead over the Tigers two weeks ago, CG put 27 points on the board in the first quarter of a 46-7 victory over McHenry to improve the Trojans to 3-0 ahead of their home battle against Jacobs.
The defense provided a boost early on for CG, as they stuffed McHenry on fourth down at their own 40 yard-line. Junior fullback Logan Abrams punched in a three-yard score to lift the Trojans up to a 7-0 lead with 7:33 left in the first.
The highlights continued from there, as a defensive three-and-out was met with a one-play touchdown run of 44 yards by senior running back Holden Boone. A fourth-down hammer by senior linebacker Charlie Ciske was met with a second straight one-play touchdown, this time being notched by Abrams from 44 yards.
An interception on the very next offensive play was met with a Landon Barnett touchdown run on a quick drive for Cary-Grove.
“(The) defense had some good stops on fourth down in the first quarter,” Coach Seaburg said. [We were] able to take advantage of that, and then able to punch them in, and just kind of keep it going.”
The second quarter brought over a few items from the first – such as one-play touchdown drives, a common theme in the first bit of the Trojans’ resounding win against the Warriors. After a punt for McHenry in the first few moments of the second quarter, Abrams started and ended the next offensive stand for the Trojans by himself, giving Cary-Grove a 34-0 lead only 17 seconds into the second quarter.
Nearly a second straight one-play drive for the Trojans was achieved, as CG took only two plays to score on the Trojans’ ensuing offensive possession, giving Cary-Grove a 40-0 advantage – the eventual margin at the half. Things started with senior Michael Dunkin scrambling for ten yards to the 19, with Holden Boone’s next play of a 19-yard touchdown finishing the drive.
All of the above provided the Trojans with a second straight start that would be enough to just “matriculate down the field”, keep playing hard-nosed defense, and let the clock run.
CG placed into the game a majority of their reserves a few minutes into the second quarter and rolled from there – junior Ryan Lummis scored a nine-yard touchdown on fourth down in the third quarter, the defense shut out the Warriors through the first three quarters, and only one touchdown was allowed by the Trojans – a 25-yard score on the first play of the fourth quarter.
“It was the first time we had a score from our JV offense,” Coach Seaburg said of the Lummis touchdown.
The reserve defense, speaking of them, also added two turnovers to Cary-Grove’s inventory, the first being a fourth-down stop with 2:13 until closing time, and the second being an interception with sub-1-minute to go.
Coach Seaburg applauded the reserve defense’s showing against higher-level athletes of the Warriors, as well as the total defensive showing throughout this season so far.
“I thought our defense did a really nice job of competing against a lot of their (McHenry’s) better players,” Coach Seaburg said.
“[We] played pretty physical up-front. We got some guys that really are aggressive on defense, and like contact and like to hit. That’s been a really big part of our success so far.”
After the late-game interception, it was “all she wrote,” and the Trojans walked out of McHenry with a winning streak of three games as well as a strong showing throughout three weeks, notably these last two weeks of football.
““[We] have played really well as a team”, Coach Seaburg said.
CG battles Jacobs at home in week four, aiming to get closer to a playoff spot after a great effort through the first third of the 2024 season.
“We’re just one step closer to getting our fourth win,” Coach Seaburg said. “Hopefully we can keep doing that, and just keep getting better each week.”