Defense lifts Cary-Grove over Robeson
This time, Cary-Grove's defense picked up the slack.
While the Trojan offense rolled up nearly 500 yards but struggled with turnovers and penalties, the defense was nearly flawless in a 35-0 defeat of Chicago Robeson in a Class 6A playoff game at Cary's Al Bohrer Field Saturday afternoon.
Eleventh-seeded Cary-Grove (8-3), the defending Class 6A state champion, will host No. 1 seed Rockford Boylan (11-0) in the quarterfinals next weekend.
"We turned the ball over way too many times, and our defense really stood up for us and picked up the slack," said Trojans' coach Bruce Kay of Saturday's win. "Football is such a team game. Last week it felt like our offense and our kicking game carried us, and this week it was defense.
"We moved the ball; you just can't fumble."
But fumble they did. The Trojans put the ball on the ground 3 times and lost all 3. They also had some big plays called back on penalties. It didn't matter, though, because of the defense.
Max Kersten and Sean Bryan registered sacks, Danny Sarillo and Sean Keady had interceptions, and the Trojans held overmatched Robeson (10-1) to 158 total yards.
The interceptions each led to touchdowns. After Sarillo picked off Juwan Pipkins' pass on the Raiders' first offensive play, the Trojans scored 3 plays later on a 1-yard run by quarterback Corey Laktas.
Keady's interception led to a 72-yard run by Patrick O'Malley to make it 14-0.
The Trojans were there own worst enemy for the middle 2 quarters before breaking it open with 3 fourth-quarter scores.
Laktas scored on another 1-yard run while Ryan Mahoney and Quinn Baker scored on long runs for the Trojans.
Cary-Grove, which didn't complete a pass, racked up 477 yards on the ground. Sophomore fullback O'Malley rushed for 220 yards and Mahoney added 139.
The big rushing numbers were a team effort.
"Our quarterback read them very well, our backs did a good job of finishing runs, and our line blocked great," said O'Malley. "Pretty much the overall execution of everything together helped us move the ball."
The Raiders moved the ball in spurts, but couldn't sustain anything. Quarterback Pipkins completed just 5 of 13 for 52 yards as he seldom saw an open receiver, and Robeson added just 108 yards on the ground. Devon Sanders, who rushed for 47 yards in the first half, had just 5 carries for 2 yards after the break and lost a fumble.
Leading 21-0, Cary stopped Sanders for no gain on back-to-back plays on third and fourth down. On the next play, Mahoney rumbled 29 yards to make it 28-0 and end any hope of a Raider comeback.
"We just played very good defensive football today," said Kay. "It was just nice to see people covering."