Even though Halloween was over the evening before, the spooks of the holiday carried over to the Friday night showdown between Cary-Grove and Chicago-Senn, which ended in a ghastly 71-6 massacre of the Bulldogs.
The Trojans took an early 7-0 lead over the Bulldogs following a 72-yard pitch-and-run for a score by senior running back Holden Boone.
On Senn’s first possession, the Bulldogs were pushed back towards their own goal line, and on third down the Trojans were able to pick up a safety. Very quickly, CG was haunting Chicago-Senn.
It only got more scary from there. Boone quickly notched a second touchdown as the Trojans went up 17-0 with 7:46 left on the first-quarter clock.
Senn’s next drive ended in a fumble, CG recovered, and they scored another touchdown – this time on a run by senior QB Peyton Seaburg – and Cary-Grove extended their lead to 24. Fumbles were a common theme for the Bulldogs’ offense against the Trojans, as the CG defense recovered another loose football on the next Bulldog snap.
Another touchdown was run in by Boone – a play later, in fact – and the Cary-Grove defense forced a Senn punt in response. Senior running back Michael Massat padded the CG lead going into the second quarter – at 38-0 – with a touchdown run.
The Trojans extended their lead to 45-0 on a score by junior running back Ryan Lummis. Even though the Bulldogs were able to notch their first and only points on a fourth-and-11 run, the Trojans wouldn’t stop their haunting of the ‘Dogs.
Freshman Trae Kole gave CG a 52-6 lead, and another Lummis score extended the Trojans’ lead to 58-6. In the middle of all of that, the Cary-Grove defense recovered a fumble, showcasing their attentiveness and quick-play ability, as they had pretty much shown all evening.
Cary-Grove’s JV squad played really well on Friday night, helping to put the Bulldogs away throughout the final three quarters in the Trojan win, after the starting squad ran past the Senn squad in the first quarter.
“I think that seniors and even the upperclassmen did a great job of letting the younger class step up, and supporting them,” junior center/tackle Owen Weber said.
“The best thing is that I don’t think we had any turnovers,” Coach Seaburg said. “That was really good.”
The second half wasn’t as spooky as the first two quarters of play, as the Trojans took in their final two touchdowns of the night in the third quarter – senior running back Gabe Rose got the first one, and another fumble recovery by CG led to the second one – as Cary-Grove put their finishing touches on a 71-6 thrashing of the Bulldogs.
“I think that it’s a great team win,” Weber said. “I think that our practice throughout these past couple weeks have really been dominant. Looking forward, we’re really excited to see how our season’s gonna turn out.”
“Did a nice job of executing on offense and then having some pretty short fields [because] the defense did a great job,” Coach Seaburg said.
No matter what the scoreboard said against Senn, nothing was wavering in CG’s preparedness for their first round opponent in the Bulldogs. The Trojans went about their preparation the same way they do every week, and this routine worked like a charm for round one.
“It was just our normal week of practice,” Coach Seaburg said. “We got ready, caused a lot of turnovers, and allowed our offense to get some scores.”
As the Trojans look to second-round action against Antioch, another home game for CG, Coach Seaburg cites execution being key in order to carry a strong game from round one towards round two – and hopefully notch a quarterfinal appearance.
“We just want to keep executing and doing what we’ve been doing.”