‘Selfless’ Dundee-Crown earns another shutout, beating Crystal Lake South
Of all the adjectives one could use to describe Dundee-Crown’s talented football team, the one Chargers coach Mike Steinhaus selected had nothing to do with speed or size or physicality.
“This group is selfless,” Steinhaus said after his team’s 28-0 Fox Valley Conference victory over Crystal Lake South in Crystal Lake. “They don’t care who eats. They don’t care who scores touchdowns. They don’t care who gets tackles. They just play together and for one another.”
The Chargers (3-2, 3-2 FVC) posted their second straight shutout and have surrendered only eight points over their last 12 quarters mostly behind a strong, physical defensive line and a bevy of swift, hard-hitting linebackers.
“That’s two shutouts in a row and it just feels so nice to see our hard work is paying off,” said linebacker Tristan Gatenby, who recorded a key quarterback sack and added a touchdown. “We play hard. We play physical, and I’m so proud of these guys.”
Gatenby and fellow linebackers Max Backaus, Jackson Stopka and Jamison Johnson were effective in helping hold the Gators (1-4, 1-4) to just 140 total yards, including a mere 55 second-half yards.
“On film the thing that stood out was the physicality of their defensive line and how relentless their linebackers were,” Crystal Lake South coach Rob Fontana said. “Credit to them. They play so fast that we weren’t able to make up for it.”
Dundee-Crown set the tone on the game’s opening drive, using 12 plays and more than eight minutes when Gatenby scored on a 3-yard run. One series later, Ereyon Bailey dashed in from 14 yards out to make it 14-0 with 10:29 left in the half.
Crystal Lake South looked to get things going in the second half, but on their first play the Gators fumbled and it was recovered by Bentley Sulinckas. That turnover and one other — an interception by Leon Metcalf — paved the way for a pair of short TD runs by Kadin Malone (16 carries, 74 yards) and a 28-0 advantage with 5:09 left in the third quarter.
Dundee-Crown thwarted three Crystal Lake South drives with a turnover on downs, twice in the second half. The defensive line led by the rotation of Xavier Ingram, Zach Anderson, Anthony Looze, Quincy Bradshaw, Patrick Belk and Jimmy Arnold stymied the hosts on their Homecoming.
Offensively, the Chargers rushed for 133 yards and quarterback Ikey Grzynkowicz completed 7 of 8 passes for 47 yards.
“We stuck to the script on that (first) drive and our running backs just ran so hard,” Steinhaus said “Ikey runs the offense well. And one thing that has improved and helped us is that our wide receivers go and get blocks downfield to help spring our backs.”
Dundee-Crown has a tough schedule ahead, squaring off with the upper half of the FVC. The Chargers host Cary-Grove next week before taking on Jacobs, Prairie Ridge and Burlington Central.
But the Chargers aren’t about to back down, Gatenby said.
“We want to make the playoffs, plain and simple,” he said. “We feel we can beat any team. We believe in each other and we believe in our program.”