Jacobs has fun again in win over banged-up Cary-Grove
Even as a one-loss team, Jacobs was seeking for a shot of confidence, as well getting back to having more fun.
The Golden Eagles found precisely what they needed with Friday's 41-7 Fox Valley Conference victory over Cary-Grove.
"The past two games we didn't show what we were truly capable of," Jacobs quarterback Max Benner said. "We came back in front of a big crowd and had all the confidence in the world at home. The O-line showed up, all the backs showed up. The defense had a very good game.
"This is exactly what we needed to get back into the swing of things and help us to finish the (regular) season strong."
The Eagles (6-1, 6-1 FVC) showed a productive offense that ran for 273 yards, while Benner was 6-of-6 for 66 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
Jacobs' defense did its part, holding a beaten-up C-G team to 168 total yards, all on the ground.
The Eagles, ranked No. 8 in The Associated Press Class 7A poll, lost to Huntley 37-20 in Week 5, then held off Burlington Central 35-30 last week. They felt Friday more represented the team they want to be.
"We needed to win this game after losing to Huntley and the close game we had last week," Eagles linebacker Dino Hunt said. "This was a must win, especially going into the playoffs. We needed this.
"It was just us having fun. From my perspective, just having fun out there made it a lot easier to do our jobs and execute at a very high level."
Jacobs scored on its first two possessions, but C-G (3-4, 3-4) came back to make it 14-7 with 3:11 in the first half. Fullback Holden Boone carried 29 times for 127 yards, 117 in the first half, and took it in from a yard out.
C-G coach Brad Seaburg thought the next drive was key, as Jacobs marched 80 yards in 10 plays for a 21-7 halftime lead. Benner hit tight end Grant Stec for a 23-yard touchdown.
"That score before halftime really hurt our momentum going in," Seaburg said. "We moved the ball to start the second half. We don't have a lot of margin for error. We'd move to third-and-short, fourth-and-short and didn't execute. And they're good too. We got to be pretty darn good on offense in order to execute."
Jacobs coach Brian Zimmerman had Benner call the plays at the line as they pushed the tempo in that drive.
"Usually Max runs back and forth," Zimmerman said. "I was telling him at the line. Max kind of called the play. I'd scream something to him. it worked and Grant got open. I'm really proud of Max."
The second half was all Jacobs. Running back Antonio Brown finished with 16 carries for 126 yards and two touchdowns. Benner hooked up with tight end Nick True for the final score.
"Sometimes we're our own worst enemies with penalties and missed assignments," Zimmerman said. "When we play a complete game we're a good football team. Tonight was the first night we felt we played a really complete game in all three phases. Special teams looked good, we've had issues with that. We really focused the last two weeks on cleaning that up."
C-G has four losses in a regular season for the first time since 2003. The Trojans need to win their last two games to become playoff eligible and lost three of their top players - wide receiver-defensive back Mykal Kanellakis, fullback-linebacker Colin Desmet and linebacker Connor Anderson - to injuries.