Defense carries Cary-Grove past St. Viator
Nick Underwood and the Cary-Grove football team spent a lot of extra time scouting St. Viator.
The Trojans came in before school because they knew St. Viator quarterback Julian Sipiora was capable of torching a team deep.
The extra work paid off as top-seeded Cary-Grove downed the visiting Lions 57-21 in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs Saturday at Al Bohrer Field in Cary.
The Trojans (10-0) will play at Highland Park in the second round. Highland Park beat Chicago Mather 39-7 Saturday.
"We were coming early every day this week to watch film," Underwood said. "We knew they had a good passing game. We had good communication on the field."
The defensive communication led to 7 St. Viator fumbles, 4 of which were recovered by the Trojans, and an interception from Josh Nelson. On the Lions' first possession, left defensive end Matt Leibforth blocked Sipiora's punt, which was recovered by Underwood and returned to the Lions' 1-yard line.
"Our coaches and kids put a lot of time in and put a lot of focus on that pass defense," Trojans' coach Bruce Kay said. "(Sipiora) is a playmaker. We had to control him."
Sipiora scored the 16th-seeded Lions' lone first-half touchdown on a 1-yard run with 8:06 in the first half to cut the Trojans' lead to 14-7. It was the lone outburst for Sipiora, who was limited to just 45 yards on 23 carries on the ground and went 10-of-18 for 77 yards and an interception in the air.
The senior, however, was knocked out of the game with what head coach Chris Kirkpatrick called a separated shoulder. Although the play itself dealt a huge blow to the Lions, who were trailing 28-7 at the time, the aftermath was simply bizarre.
On the play, Kirkpatrick felt that Sipiora was thrown with unnecessary force and went onto the field to argue with the officiating crew. After being flagged for entering the field, Kirkpatrick, who was now joined by two assistant coaches, continued to rant and was then flagged again and ejected from the game. The Lions were flagged twice more, 4 times total, on the play.
"I'm going to stand up for my kid," Kirkpatrick said. "These kids are just playing in a high school game."
While the majority of the Trojans' focus was on the defense, Eric Chandler more than provided the offense. Chandler rushed for 5 touchdowns in the victory and finished with 162 yards on 18 rushes (9 yards per carry).
Chandler put the Trojans up 14-0 with scoring runs of 7 and 1 yards in the first quarter. He then extended the Cary-Grove lead to 28-7 after scoring on rushes of 3 and 7 yards in the second and third quarters. His final blow came on a 28-yard breakaway run with 11:54 left in the 4th quarter.
"We wanted to do a good job of running it," Chandler said. "The O-line set the tone right away."
Trojans' quarterback Tyler Krebs added an 8-yard pass to Chad McCarron, John Kraft scored on a 60-yard run and Joe Ryan took a St. Viator (5-5) kickoff back 92 yards for a score in the fourth.
Led by junior Cameron Korab, St. Viator scored twice in the fourth quarter, once on a Korab 1-yard run and another on a 6-yard rush from Michael Broccolino.