Cary-Grove rolls to another opening-round win
Cary-Grove backup quarterback Bobby Collins heard the rumors that he'd have to start in place of JP Sullivan because of an illness as early as Tuesday.
By Wednesday it was the real thing and after Friday's 48-7 Class 7A first round win over No. 28 Belleville West at Al Bohrer Field in Cary, Collins sort of became a folk hero in his own right.
The junior threw 3 passes for 139 yards and 2 touchdowns, his top highlight a 78-yard fake punt pass to James Freskos down the left sideline with 9:29 left in the third quarter for a 34-7 lead. That broke the Maroons' backs and let the No. 5 Trojans (9-1) cruise to the second round to face either No. 21 St. Charles North or No. 12 Benet Academy next weekend.
"It was just a play that really brought them down a notch," said Collins, who fumbled 3 times prior and sought redemption. "It was great to have ... after that play it was a sigh of relief."
"The fake punt seem to take the wind out of them," Trojans coach Brad Seaburg said. "And Bobby's been getting reps all year, so the way we practice it's not like the NFL where the backup doesn't get any reps. So he came in and did a nice job."
Collins also tossed a 55-yard TD pass to Kevin Hughes on 2nd-and-4 with 4:16 left in the first quarter to cap a 4-play, 71-yard drive that took just 1:42 off the clock for a 13-0 lead.
"The free safety came up and it was just wide open," Collins said. "It was kind of a bad throw - I threw it behind him but it was good that he adjusted and caught it."
C-G received its norm from full back Tyler Pennington, who rushed 22 times for 168 yards and 3 touchdowns, all from 7 yards out.
Pennington's first score with 7:47 left in the first gave C-G a 6-0 lead and helped it grow to 27-7 before the half. Cary-Grove racked up 567 yards of total offense with 428 coming via the run. Max Skol (3 rushes, 92 yards) and Kyle Pressley (3 rushes, 17 yards) added scores while Ryan Magel ran for 83 yards on 9 carries. On the other side, Sherond Boyd managed 52 yards on 7 carries.
"You have to pick your poison of either trying to take away the fullback or if they hit you on the edge," Maroons coach Cameron Pettus said. "You can tell they're a quality program and they do a nice job."
Belleville West (5-5) totaled 217 yards total of offense, as star receiver TeAntez Anthony had just 1 catch for 32 yards but left with a knee injury. West was sacked 6 times, including 3 from defensive end Erik Norberg with 1 each from Kevin Pedersen and Alex Prendergast. Pennington sacked Logan Betz once and recovered a fumble.
"I definitely saw that our defensive backs were giving us a lot of time covering their routes, and that gave me a lot of time to chase down their quarterback," Norberg said. "Without them I would never have gotten the sacks. It's definitely nice to be in that category to hold them down to 7 points, definitely a team effort; everyone was on defense doing their job."