Cary-Grove 37, Huntley 7
Since losing in Week 2 against Prairie Ridge, Cary-Grove has been nothing short of a solid football team. The Trojans have outscored their opponents 100-21 in the past two games and that has a lot to do with forcing turnovers.
In its 37-7 win against Huntley on Friday night in a Fox Valley Conference crossover game at Huntley, Cary-Grove forced the Red Raiders to turn the ball over five times. Trojan defensive back Matt Nelsen helped give his offense a short field by intercepting two of Casey Popenfoose's passes.
"Our defensive line did its job of putting the pressure on (Popenfoose)," Nelsen said. "That forced him to put the ball up in the air and our coverage was there. All we had to do was make the play and we did."
Not only were the Trojans clicking on defense, but they also had both their running attack and passing game firing on all cylinders. In its opening drive, Cary-Grove was faced with a third-and-5 situation.
The Trojans were able to keep the drive alive when quarterback A.J Hoger connected with Dan McCall for a 35-yard gain. Cary-Grove would later score on a 2-yard run by Eric Chandler.
"I thought Hoger did a great job tonight of making the right decisions," Trojans coach Bruce Kay said. "When the primary or secondary receivers weren't open, he was able to take what the defense gave him. We were also able to control the tempo of the game and that allowed us to eat up a lot of the clock."
The Trojans compiled 243 yards on the ground and had rushing touchdowns from Chandler, Andrew Schuh, and Kyle Gray.
Although the Red Raiders (1-3) were able to avoid their fourth shutout in five meetings against Cary-Grove (3-1), poor execution on offense in the early going hurt their chances of staying in the game. The lone touchdown came off a 2-yard run by Austin Drougas with 1:21 left in the game.
"They were the superior team out there tonight," Huntley's coach Steve Graves said. "We needed to come out and execute perfectly against them and we did not do that. We really can't go down much from here. We have a lot to improve on and it definitely showed out there tonight."