Moore, Elgin open with big night vs. Dundee-Crown
Dennis Moore was a scoring machine.
The Elgin junior scored all 21 of Elgin's second half points as the Maroons downed Dundee-Crown 41-12 at the D-C Bowl in the season opener Friday night.
Moore ran in for a 4-yard score, picked off Chargers' quarterback Tanner Kotlan and returned the ball 98-yards for a touchdown and kicked a pair of extra points.
And that was just in the third quarter.
Moore added a 73-yard scoring run and another extra point in the fourth quarter as the Maroons outscored the Chargers 21-7 in the second half.
"I've been waiting for this opportunity," said Moore, who finished with 8 rushes for 95 yards. "(On the interception) when I caught the ball, all I saw was grass. I was looking for it and it was there."
Moore's second half came off the back of senior running back Jordan Dean's 111 first-half rushing yards. Dean initially put Elgin ahead 6-0 when he rushed in from 4-yards out with 4:29 left in the first quarter. The senior finished the game with 132 yards on 19 attempts.
"It starts off with the line," Dean said. "They're all great guys. I've got to give them all the credit."
The Chargers answered Dean's touchdown with a 35-yard scoring pass from Tanner Kotlan to Steve Schwartz with 6:07 left in the second quarter.
Maroons' quarterback Jake Meyer then tallied a pair of touchdowns in the final 4:25 of the first half to lead Elgin to a 20-6 halftime lead.
Meyer found Early Holloway on a 43-yard bomb and then rushed in from 4 yards out with 1:41 remaining in the first half.
"The way they were playing us defensively, they were pressuring us pretty good," Maroons' coach Dave Bierman said. "We had to take what they gave us."
Elgin's defense did its part as well.
On the Chargers' second-to-last drive of the game, Tim Gross recorded a pair of sacks on Kotlan. But the Chargers did finish off the drive with their second touchdown of the game, a 15-yard pass from Kotlan to Tulsa Bates with 5:23 left in the ballgame.
"They were much more physical upfront and that cost us," Chargers' coach Mike Davis said.