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Cary-Grove makes it clear — they aren't done yet

Had Libertyville's football players been told prior to the postseason they would win 3 playoff games before bowing out with a 9-4 record, they probably would have been OK with that scenario.

Heck, most teams statewide would be OK with making a state semifinal appearance.

Not Cary-Grove.

Not this year.

Senior heavy and loaded with talent, these Trojans have kept one goal in mind since the 2013 season ended in a second-round playoff loss to Boylan in Rockford: win the 2014 state title. No other result will satisfy them.

“If we didn't win this game, it would have been a failure,” two-way lineman Trevor Ruhland said Saturday after Cary-Grove's 41-7 dismantling of host Libertyville Saturday in a Class 7A semifinal. “And if we don't win next game, it's going to be a failure. That's just our mindset. We're not done yet.”

The Trojans will face Providence for the Class 7A state title next Saturday in Champaign at 4 p.m. Cary-Grove defeated the Celtics to win the 2009 Class 6A title, 34-17.

For the 13th time this season, the Trojans physically punished their opponent, led in the trenches on both sides of the ball by all-staters Ruhland and Michael Gomez.

“We wanted to be the more physical team,” quarterback Jason Gregoire said. “We wanted to dominate on both sides of the ball, own the line of scrimmage each and every time, every single play.

“And we wanted to, what we call, break their will, which is pretty much making them quit. Make them not want to play football anymore. I think in the middle of the third quarter we did that. You could just see it in how they played. They didn't quit, but they weren't enjoying football anymore.”

It's hard to enjoy football when you're getting smacked around by Ruhland and Gomez, who each leveled Libertyville quarterback Riley Lees at some point. The Trojans made a believer of the Wildcats' all-state signal caller.

“There's a reason that they're undefeated,” Lees said. “I mean, we played our hardest. They're a good team. Sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. I truly think they're going to win the state championship. I think they're that good of a team and they've earned that right to be in that game.”

The state final berth is Cary-Grove's fourth since 2004 and its third in the last six seasons, but making the trip to Champaign never gets old.

“Every time it's great,” said fourth-year coach Brad Seaburg. “It's such hard work. It's such hard work for the kids. It's such hard work for the coaches and the sacrifices that the parents make that you have to appreciate every single trip you get down there because there's some schools that never get down there. And we're just blessed to be able to go down four times in the last 10 years and three in the last six. It's really special.”

Cary-Grove owns a 1-2 record at Memorial Stadium. The 2009 Trojans won it all. The 2004 and 2012 teams played well but came up a bit shy.

Ruhland, Gomez, and running back/safety Matt Sutherland all started for the 2012 runner up, which lost to LaQuon Treadwell-led Crete-Monee, 33-26. They've been through this before. They want a different outcome this time around.

“It feels just as good,” Sutherland said of reaching his second title game, “but after losing last time we're not satisfied. We know what it takes. We've got to keep on going.”

“We're 1-2,” Ruhland said of Cary-Grove's championship-game record. “We're going to become 2-2. That's our goal.”

Images: Libertyville vs. Cary-Grove football

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