The Cary-Grove athletic program might not be famous state-wide.
In over 60 years as a school, the Trojans have won only a single state trophy — fourth place in baseball in 2009 — in any boys sport.
Except football.
Because there, Cary-Grove has found a way to become the best Class 6A program in the state. The Trojans are 19-1 in their last 20 playoff games, with three state titles since 2018. They have reached a state final seven times, including twice in 7A, since 2004. They have twice beaten the state’s other 6A juggernaut for the crown, as the only non-Catholic League team to beat East St. Louis in any round of the playoffs in the last 10 years.
And they’ve done it the way NIC-10 co-champion Belvidere North, whom they play in Saturday’s quarterfinals, wants to do it ― with an old-fashioned triple-option running game.
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“It’s pretty cool to go against a team that has set the standard for our class of football for the last decade and see how we match up,” North coach Jeff Beck said. “In a lot of ways, for a lot of teams, whether it’s a flexbone option team or not, they have set the standard in 6A football for a long time now.”
“We win with all kinds of different kids,” Cary-Grove coach Brad Seaburg said. “We have had some high-level Division I recruits and we have had years like last year when we beat East St. Louis and East St. Louis had Power 5 recruits all over the field and we had two kids that were Division III football players.”
Sometimes in football, you can get away with not always having the most talented kids.
“Our kids and our coaches and our parents believe in what we do. We do run an offense that is unconventional. It certainly is not mainstream any more, but it gives us the best chance to beat teams that have more talent than us year-in and year-out. And our staff has been in place a long time. It is kind of a throwback, but our kids love winning more than anything.”
The two schools are only 37 miles apart but have never met in football. Cary-Grove’s only game against any NIC-10 team the last five years was an easy playoff win over East. Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge, though, plays a similar style and split two games with Harlem in recent years. The last time, CLPR’s quarterback set state playoff records with 481 rushing yards and eight TDs in a 69-28 rout.
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This year, CLPR lost 18-12 to Cary-Grove in a game where each team had the ball only twice in the second half. Beck hopes for a similar game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Belvidere North.
“Putting 30 or 40 points on the board against them is probably not in the cards,” Beck said, “but if we can get in the 20s, our defense has been playing lights-out.”
For North, this game will be like playing a better version of itself. For Cary-Grove, it may seem like just another Fox Valley Conference game.
“Our conference is a throwback conference in many ways,” said Seaburg, who is 136-28 in 14 years at Cary-Grove. “Two teams in our conference have turf; the other eight don’t. Five teams in our conference are still under center and predominantly running teams. We play physical teams that run the ball, but have five teams that throw it as well. We are really prepared for some of the different offenses we will see in the playoffs.”
Matt Trowbridge is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at mtrowbridge@rrstar.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @MattTrowbridge.
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