Cary-Grove runs past Dundee-Crown
The Cary-Grove backfield carousel continues but so do the victories.
Of the four backfield starters on Aug. 25 at Prairie Ridge, only junior quarterback Quinn Priester was on the field for Saturday's 49-22 homecoming win over Dundee-Crown.
The others - Max Skol, Danny Daigle and Adam DeAlba - are sidelined with injuries of varying degrees.
Do the Cary-Grove linemen care who carries the ball behind them?
"Not really," said senior Addison West (6-4, 270). "Just follow us and we'll lead you to the land."
West and company led their teammates to 7 rushing touchdowns, 4 in the second quarter when the Trojans moved to a 35-0 lead.
Junior Max Buss, a backup fullback a year ago who began this season as a defensive player, carried 24 times for 148 yards and 4 touchdowns. However, he was forced from the game due to a shoulder injury and his status for next Friday's home game against Crystal Lake South is unknown.
"I got dragged down and I landed straight on my shoulder," Max Buss said. "I felt like I got a weird shock to it, but I think it will be fine."
"It's one of those years where guys get injured," Cary-Grove coach Brad Seaburg said. "We're just fortunate that we've got a lot of pretty tough kids that are able to go both ways in some capacity. Smart kids, too, to be able to do that."
The line of West and fellow seniors Colton Ruhland (6-foot-2, 260), Cadin Koeppel (5-10, 205) and Nicco Miyuskovich (5-7, 190), junior Jason Petko (6-1, 220) and senior tight end Jake Buss (6-1, 210) created running room for Max Buss and juniors Zach Perrone (10 carries, 87 yards) and Michael Boyd (6-63).
Meanwhile, a Cary-Grove defense led by 6-foot-5, 310-pound, SIU-bound lineman Brett Groves, now a part-time offensive player, got sacks from seniors Daniel Gilroy and juniors Ben McDonald and Blake Skol.
Cary-Grove (4-2, 4-2) limited Dundee-Crown (1-5, 0-5) to 38 first-half rushing yards, 50 total.
Thus, the Chargers changed tactics in the second half to great effect.
D-C opened the second half with a 16-play, 80-yard drive that took over seven minutes. The key play was junior running back Ricky Ibarra's 6-yard gain to the Cary-Grove 18 on fourth down.
D-C junior quarterback Josh Raby connected with junior Robby Krueger 4 plays later for a 15-yard touchdown on fourth-and-11.
Ibarra finished with 116 rushing yards in 20 attempts. Raby completed 11 of 18 attempts for 129 yards and 3 second-half touchdowns, 2 of them to 6-foot-3 junior tight end Jack Michalski. He made 5 catches for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns.
"We started off really slow and we weren't able to execute what we wanted our game plan to be," Raby said. "So we kind of made some adjustments in the second half and got our guys going a little bit. We threw the ball a little more. That's what we want to see, positive steps against Cary-Grove."