Chargers fall short against Warriors
MCHENRY – Murphy's Law had its way with Dundee-Crown in the first half at McHenry on Friday night, putting the Chargers in a hole that ultimately proved too deep.
The Chargers fell 42-20 against their Fox Valley Conference Valley Division foes.
The wet, windy conditions did little to slow the Warriors' passing attack as quarterback Thomas Rose completed 26 passes for 321 yards, 209 of which came in the first half.
"Coming in here, we were talking about having to adjust for the weather," said Dundee-Crown coach Mike Davis. "But the weather didn't really affect us, we were inclined to throw the ball anyway and we just made some mistakes and didn't execute."
McHenry (3-3, 2-0) started the scoring when it cashed in on a 7-yard touchdown run by Nico DeLorenzo with 2:55 to go in the first quarter.
The Chargers went three-and-out on their ensuing possession, and McHenry made them pay by marching down the field and scoring on a 5-yard touchdown strike from Rose to Trevor Marunde to push the Warriors' edge to 14-0 with 10:56 left in the half.
The Chargers (1-5, 0-2) continued their offensive struggles on the next possession when Geoff Clifford fumbled the ball away on the Chargers' 35-yard line after receiving a pass from Tanner Kotlan.
From there, the Warriors poured it on for the remainder of the half. Rose found Corey Szamlewski from 18 yards out, the Chargers followed with a punt, and Rose found Marunde in the end zone again, this time from 7 yards away. The Chargers trailed 28-0 at halftime.
"(The early deficit) didn't really set us back too much from a game-planning standpoint," Davis said. "I think it just got us down mentally a little bit, but we didn't really change anything we were going to do."
D-C was able to strike back to some extent in the second half. With the Warriors back on their own goal line, Miles Adkins picked off a Rose pass at the 5 and sauntered in for the Chargers' first score with 9:12 in the third quarter.
Rose added two more touchdown passes to Marunde and DeLorenzo before the Chargers struck again. Kotlan fired a 25-yard touchdown pass to Steve Schwartz to make the score 42-13 with 6:19 left in the game and then found Schwartz again two possessions later, this time on a 6-yard fade route.
"Seeing the kids after they scored a few, they were a little more positive," said Davis. "We have a young team and hopefully we can carry this over to next week."
In a game bogged down by 27 total penalties for 211 yards between the two squads, Davis was able to find a silver lining in the Chargers' loss.
"Offensively, we're getting better," Davis said. "The effort is more consistent now than it had been earlier in the year, but we have to tackle better. The kids are playing hard."
Kotlan completed 22 passes for 204 yards and two scores. Danny Sharp led the Chargers on the ground with 67 yards on 12 attempts.
MCHENRY 42, DUNDEE-CROWN 20
Dundee-Crown 0 0 7 13 — 20
McHenry 7 21 0 14 — 42
MCH — DeLorenzo 7 run (Teagarden kick), 2:55
MCH — Marunde 5 pass from Rose (Teagarden kick), 10:56
MCH — Szamlewski 18 pass from Rose (Teagarden kick), 8:49
MCH — Marunde 7 pass Rose (Teagarden kick), 5:06
DC — Adkins 5 interception return (Villanueva kick), 6:40
MCH — Marunde 3 pass from Rose (Teagarden kick), 11:06
MCH — DeLorenzo 33 pass from Rose (Teagarden kick), 9:12
DC — Schwartz 25 pass from Kotlan (kick failed), 6:19
DC — Schwartz 6 pass from Kotlan (Villanueva kick), :47
Team statistics D-C MCH
First downs 10 23
Comp.-att-int. 22-44-2 27-39-2
Passing yards 204 327
Rushing-att-yds. 21-82 27-193
Total yards 286 520
Fumbles-lost 3-2 1-0
Penalties-yards 13-139 14-102
Individual statistics
Rushing:
DC — Sharp 15-67, Kotlan 4-9, Drozdz 5-6.
MCH — Howe 17-140, DeLorenzo 8-52, Rose 2-1.
Passing:
DC — Kotlan 22-44-2, 204.
MCH — Rose 26-37-2, 321. Marunde 1-1-0, 6, Shmidt 0-1-0, 0.
Receiving:
DC — Thompson 6-92, Schwartz 7-5-48 Clifford 5-43, Torres 2-5, Sharp 2-3, Adkins 1-9, Stone 1-1 .
MCH – Marunde 9-100, Borter 3-35, Szamlewski 6-42, DeLorenzo 2-36 Howe 3-17, Shmidt 5-97.
