Late field goal pushes Trojans past Saints
CARY -- Cary-Grove finally answered St. Charles East's resourcefulness Saturday night with the right leg of Marcus Kerrigan.
With 48.5 seconds remaining in regulation, Kerrigan boomed through an 18-yard field goal to bring an end to the Saints' season with a 10-7 Trojans victory in the Class 7A state playoffs.
"The defense did a great job, the offense moved the ball, we just didn't finish like we should have," Saints coach Ted Monken said. "And when that happens in the playoffs, you go home and turn in your gear."
The Saints defense found ways to keep the Trojans (11-0) out of the end zone after the first quarter despite allowing 285 rushing yards, while the St. Charles East offense turned effectively to the arm of quarterback Timothy Russell for 131 passing yards on 10-of-18 attempts after running back Wes Allen was shut down.
However, the Saints (8-3) couldn't score in the fourth quarter after driving to the Trojans 22-yard line, then couldn't prevent Cary-Grove's winged-T attack from marching 71 yards entirely on the ground to the 1-yard line to set Kerrigan up on the left hash mark.
"I love the left hash mark," Kerrigan said.
It showed, as the kick sailed high and straight through the uprights. Then Cary-Grove defensive back Jake Underwood clinched the second-round playoff win by picking off a Russell pass on the second play from scrimmage following the field goal.
"They won the game on that drive and we didn't get them stopped," Monken said. "In those critical situations, you've got to come up with plays."
The Saints decided against letting Daniel Keller try a 39-yard field goal with a strong right-to-left crosswind one series before the Trojan field goal. After a third-and-four pass to Tyler Nutting lost 2 yards, Russell was sacked on fourth-and-four from the 22 to give Cary-Grove the ball for its final drive.
"We couldn't have kicked it that far at that point," Monken said. "We were on the 22, with the wind and it being a crosswind. He's a good kicker but we didn't have that kind of confidence in it."
Cary-Grove's Eric Chandler ran for 121 tough yards on 25 carries mostly up the middle, including a 32-yard first-quarter run for his team's only touchdown and a 7-0 lead. When Chandler wasn't running up the middle, it was quarterback Tyler Krebs taking the option for 62 yards on 11 tries or Alex Hembrey running wide for 69 yards on 15 tries as Cary-Grove didn't need to complete a pass in the game.
But St. Charles East's defense got off the field with fumble recoveries by James Sheehan and Patrick Friel.
"There's teams all over the country running a very similar offense because it's a good offense," Monken said. "It really stretches the defense thin. You have to cover everything. It slows down your pursuit.
"If one guy misses a tackle you're in big trouble. It's a great offense and I think we did a good job against it. Holding those guys to 10 points? I'm not sure too many people held them to 10 points all year."
The Saints offense lives by the running of Allen, but they had zero first-half rushing yards. So Russell hit Mike Ryan with a 38-yard bomb up the middle to set up Allen's 2-yard, game-tying touchdown dive in the second quarter.
Allen eventually gained 68 yards on 20 carries, but had 51 of them in the fourth quarter.
"They were good," Allen said. "They were submarining our linemen and clogging up the middle. Their linebackers were quick to the spots. They were a great defense.
"We couldn't get a whole lot going up the middle so we had to take it to the outside. Our game mostly is up the middle and they were able to stop that. It was rough. Our passing game did a good job of picking us up, but it wasn't enough."
