Dundee-Crown can’t sustain lead
Dundee-Crown dominated McHenry during the first half of Friday night’s game.
Despite being the most physical team that the Chargers have faced this season, D-C was able to come out as the aggressor. Led by 147 yards from Cody Lane, the Chargers rushed for 191 yards in building a 17-14 halftime lead.
But D-C failed to sustain the push, eventually falling 40-30 in the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division opener for both teams at McCracken Field in McHenry. The loss denied the Chargers their first 3-0 start to a season since 1987.
As the game wore on, the Warriors’ relentless attack wore down the Chargers (2-1, 0-1) with McHenry (2-1, 1-0) outscoring Dundee-Crown 26-13 in the second half. The 26-straight points came after the Warriors defense held D-C to a 3-and-out on 3 consecutive possessions. McHenry scored on every possession in the second half.
“They beat us in every way possible,” Chargers’ coach Vito Andriola said. “I know their offensive line gave us trouble. We started good and then we couldn’t stop them. Three times in the second half they came down the field and we couldn’t stop them. Every time they wanted to do something they did.”
In the first half, Dundee-Crown forced McHenry to punt 3 times and Tim Schanmier recovered a John Konstanelos’ fumble. In total both teams rushed 21 times, with Dundee-Crown amassing 191 yards to McHenry’s 78.
Lane had 147 yards on 11 carries in the first half and finished with 219 yards on 19 carries with scoring runs of 75, 60 and 9 yards. In the Chargers’ opening drive he had 5 rushes for 50 yards capped off with a 9-yard touchdown.
McHenry rebounded with 168 yards on the ground in the second half. Konstanelos led the way with 136 yards on 25 carries and 3 touchdowns. Running back Jesse Guajardo punched in touchdown runs of 2 and 15 yards in the second half.
“We wanted to put pressure on the quarterback,” said defensive linemen Gerald Allen, who finished with 7 tackles. “On the last two possessions in the first half, we wanted to go all out to stop them. We went out and played we just made a few mistakes.”
J.T. Hill Beasley extended the Chargers’ lead to 24-14 with 9:16 left in the third quarter when he scored on a 49-yard run. It was the last Chargers’ points until Lane scored on a 60-yard run with 1:40 left in the game.