Defense leads Chargers past Streamwood
Playing well on defense will often times give any team a chance to win. On Saturday, Dundee-Crowns' defense did just that and the Chargers picked up their first football win of the season against Streamwood, winning the nonconference game at Millennium Field 21-7.
"Well, the defense pretty much won this game," Chargers' coach Mike Davis said. "They tackled a heck of a lot better this week than last week. They really do deserve all the credit for winning this game."
After a scoreless first quarter, Dundee-Crown struck first on a 74-yard touchdown pass by Logan Kissack to Ian Salvatini. Davis knows when Salvatini hits the open field anything can happen.
"I am not very smart but I know one thing," Davis said. "If you give (Salvatini) open space it's going to be tough to tackle him. He's fast and has some good moves. He is a three-year player who knows what he is doing."
On the second play of the second half, Chargers' linebacker David Hopkins picked off a pass from Sabres' quarterback Noel Rivera (11-for-23, 116-yards) and ran it in 18 yards to give his team a 14-0 lead. Hopkins also recorded 3 sacks on the day.
"I asked my coach am I blitzing the quarterback or what am I am doing," Hopkins said. "He just told me to stay back and then I saw the ball coming. I just grabbed it and took off."
A couple of possessions later, the Sabres (0-2) brought the game to within a touchdown, when they drove the ball 72-yards on 13 plays in 6:45. The drive was capped by a 20-yard touchdown run by Derrick King. King rushed for a total of 135-yards on 22 carries.
The Chargers answered Streamwood with a 13-play scoring drive of their own on the very next possession. Kissack connected with Justin Strzelczyk on a 9-yard pass to put Dundee-Crown up two possessions with 6:17 left in the game. To make matters worse for Streamwood, the Chargers (1-1) recovered an onside kick and took more time off the clock, hampering any comeback chances.
"Today was one of those days we went out there and competed well but they out thought us," Sabres' coach Cal Cummins said. "We made some critical mental mistakes that really hurt us in the ballgame. Physically we just didn't do things very well. I mean we did a lot of things well today, it was just those inopportune times where we didn't that hurt us."