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The perfect signal? may have been the pro- aw that broke Johns- Rockets rally past JHS; Wauconda trims C-G R-B defense ^ WMi ^OLWW <%. New lights stiffens after B r%ta / w% only bright early score I I # L \M 1 4 spot in loss By Mark Meyer Herald sports writer By Phil English Herald sports writer RICHMOND -- Judging by his post-game demeanor, Richmond- Burton's J. Randy Hofman looked like only a half-satisfied head coach. "We had some good moments and some not too good moments," stat­ ed the bespectacled field boss, whose club is five-time defending Big Eight Conference champions. "We did some sloppy things out there. Missing tackle and blocks. Not executing the way we should. "All in all, a good win. You know, they say the team that scores first in high school football usually wins. Well, we disproved that theory tonight." They certainly did. The maroon- and-gold clad Rockets disposed of Johnsburg, 21-7, in the season open­ er for both clubs, in a game that featured a little bit of everything -- reverses, halfback passes, bone- crunching hits. You name it, the Rockets and Skyhawks did it. However, the Rockets maintained the upper hand throughout the ma­ jority of the contest, taking control in the middle of the second quarter and never letting up tjie rest of the way. R-B fell behind 7-0 with 3:11 left in the first quarter when Johnsburg quarterback Frank Husak (7 com­ pletions, 60 yards) fired a 13-yard scoring strike to Brian Frazier, who outdueled the Rockets' Dave John­ son at the goal line. "I thought we got off to a pretty good start," said Johnsburg head coach Mike Roberts. "We were moving the ball well, both on the ground and in the air. "But then they (R-B) made a few adjustments defensively, and they started to shut us down pretty regu­ larly. They deserve a lot of credit. They're a real good football team. A lot better than I thought they'd be." Part of Johnsburg's problem was trying to keep a handle on Rocket running back Denny Komar. The slashing tailback ripped the Sky- hawk defense for 178 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Komar's first tally came with 10:54 left in the second quarter when he powered over the left side from four yards out. His second touchdown, a one-yard dive over the • left side, came with just J 3 seconds left in the half and gave the Rockets a 13-7 lead they would never relinquish. verbial straw that broke burg's back. The Skyhawks came out for the third quarter and could muster only one first down while running off a total of eight offensive plays. "They (R-B) don't have too many numbers," explained Roberts, "but they do a super job. They hit hard, they tackle well and they carry out their blocks. "I thought we got a nice game out of running back John Kegel (66 yards on 16 carries). He ran hard all game for us." Not hard enough, though, to punc­ ture the stingy Rocket defense. Johnsburg gained 68 yards rushing in the first half and was held to minus-four yards in the second half. Richmond-Burton, on the other hand, tore through the Skyhawks for 230 yards on the ground and 103 though the air. Rocket quarterback Brad Miller finished the game with seven completions, one of which went to Duke Weber for a 14-yard touchdown with 51 seconds left in the third quarter. ROCKETS-Page 12 Cary-Grove running back Kevin Collins grinds out some tough yardage in the Trojans' season opener under the new lights at A1 Bohrer Field. Cary suffered an 18-7 loss to Wauconda in the season- opener for both teams. Saturday, August 31,1985 4th-quarter touchdown lifts Riv.-Brookfield past McHenry Herald photo by Chris Juzwik McHenry quarterback Bill Cameron looks for someone to pass the ball during the Warriors' heartbreaking 8-6 loss to Riverside- Brookfield at McCracken Field Friday night. By Chris Juzwik Herald sports writer McHENRY - Man, did McHen- ry's Warriors look good in Friday night's season opener against Riv- erside-Brookfield. Really, they looked exceptionally... good. The Warriors blocked well, ran well, passed well, executed well, tackled well, and basically played a superb football game. But, they for­ got one thing. McHenry forgot to win. It was as lopsided a game as any ever played in which the dominant team came out on the wrong end of the score. It was... well, you ge£ the • picture. "That was a real gut-wrencher, wasn't it?" losing coach Joe Schlender said post-game, smiling, but not pleased. It was a gut-wrencher, to be cer­ tain. McHenry moved the ball up and down the field at will, running off 18 more plays than the Bulldogs, unofficially. ' Senior quarterback Mark Jinga was impressive in his debut, com­ pleting 7-of-12 passes for 105 yards, and was complimented by a potent running game, led by the senior tandem of Dana Pitel and Jim Shav­ er, who rambled unofficially for 96 and 82 yards, respectively. But while the Warriors cruised between McCracken Field's 20-yard-lines quite easily, they couldn't put the ball in the end zone. "We moved the ball well enough to win, that's for sure," Schlender said. "It's tough to describe what happened, really." Pitel grabbed a pass from Jinga and jaunted 12 yards for a score with just six minutes gone in the game to give McHenry a 6-0 lead. The drive covered 60 yards, and featured a pair of hookups between the two, sprinkled between runs by Shaver, Pitel and Jinga himself, who scrambled 29 yards to keep the drive alive. Bob Diedrich's attempted point- after kick was short. Riverside-Brookfield appeared a bit befuddled throughout the coil- test, as quarterback Jeff Ostrowski threw a host of short passes to his backs and wide receivers, just a handful of which connected. Run­ ning back Ted Latsonas did the rest of the work, running six times for almost 40 yards in the first half. McHenry had an excellent scoring chance at the end of the half, re­ bounding from three straight penal­ ties to drive to R-B's 10-yard-line. But the effort stalled when Jinga missed linking up with senior split end Curt Justen in the end zone. Schlender then called for a fake field goal, but holder Bill Cameron was sacked to end the half. A serious injury to an R-B player stalled the game with 11:18 to go in the third, with McHenry in the midst of another offensive surge. After a 15-minute delay, the War­ riors seemed to lose their momen­ tum, while the Bulldogs appeared to suddenly find themselves. Jinga drove his squad down to the R-B 36, but fired an interception to give R-B the ball with 7:35 to go in the third. The Bulldogs made their deepest penetration of the night, just into Warrior territory, but a fourth-and- two pass fell short. McHenry again surged to the Bulldog 15, and Jinga kept and ran to the nine, but an offsides call against Justen on fourth-and-four forced McHenry into a passing situ- WARRIORS -- Page 12 CARY -- While the lights may have been the only bright thing about Friday night's season opener for Cary-Grove, the future does not necessarily look dim for the Trojans. The highly-touted Trojan air as- sualt sputtered throughout the ma­ jority of the game, but the C-G running game had its moments, and the Trojan defense held the victori­ ous Wauconda Bulldogs to 120 yards, unofficially, and kept the game within reaching distance. Behind quarterback Doug Hughes' accurate throwing game, the Trojans could only muster seven points, the first touchdown of the game, and fell to a surprisingly balanced Bulldog squad, led by the brotherly squad of Norm and Tony Niemo, under the lights of A1 Bohrer Field, 18-7. Things were not bound to go Cary's way, as a trick play would pay testament to. With less than two minutes remaining in the game, Hughes faded back from his own 29 and hit receiver T.J. Kreft for what looked like a simple four yard gain. Kreft grabbed the ball low and tossed a lateral to Kevin Collins, who had 60 yards of open field in his sights. When Collins returned from what would have been the game winning touchdown, the referees ruled Kreft's knee hit the ground, nullifying the play. That's just the way things went for the Trojans Friday night. Cary coach Mike Buck, despite the loss, was encouraged with the Trojan defense and the somewhat explosive ground game. "I think we moved the ball well in the second half," Buck said. "Our passing game was just OK. We had some problems with the kids being in the right position. I was pleased with the defense. We'll be alright." Despite the positive outlook on the defeat, the Trojans managed to rack up little offense outside of the first and third quarters. Hughes completed only 3-of-12 passes in the first half for 33 yards and two interceptions, unofficially, and was dropped by the Bulldog defense for minus seven yards. Ke­ vin Collins was the big carrier for the early^ half o! the game, unoffi­ cially going 17 yards on four carries. In the second half, Hughes went 4- for-io for 3^ yards, the big catch being the 17-yard gainer to Kreft. On the ground, Collins was the most impressive, having eight car­ ries for 25 yards. Dan Dosenbach ran two times for 12 yards, returned most of the punts and recovered a fumble. On the defensive side, the Trojans looked powerful in spots. Big defen­ sive tackle Martin Hochertz had two quarterback sacks for 13-plus yards, unofficially, and was backed up by sacks from Scott Fujino. Cary struck first blood at the 3:29 mark of the second quarter, when the Trojans took posession of a poor Wauconda punt on the Bulldog 21 yard line. Hughes failed to complete two passes in a row, when the third and 10 situation resulted in running- back Guy Pearson's draw up the middle, a broken tackle, and a 20- yard scamper into the Wauconda end zone. Collins kicked the extra point for a 7-0 lead with 11 minutes remaining in the half. The Trojans went into the half- time locker room down 12-7, after Wauconda quarterback Mike Payne, who tossed for a 4-for-ll first half, hurled what appeared to be a small gain screen. The screen erupted into a 65-yard open field run for Ray Terrian. In the second half, Cary, which took offensive posession after Do- senbach's kickoff return to the Tro­ jan 33. The ground game was sfet in CARY - Page 12 By Herald News Service HARVARD - Tim Haak isn't complaining. A win is a win, and the first-year Harvard football coach knows it. The Hornets got 1985 off on the right foot Friday night with a 7-0 win over Marengo in a non-confer­ ence opener for both teams at Dan Home Field. A six-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Mike Jones to Bill Gal- lagly midway throught the first quarter combined with the ensuing point after gave the Hornets a 7-0 lead. "The difference was we were in shape," said Harvard Coach Tim Haak, who won his first contest as head man. "There were not too many mental mistakes." The touchdown was the second successful fourth-down try for Har­ vard in the drive. The eight-play, 32- yard drive was started off by a long return of a Marengo punt by John Strieker. After fielding the kick at the Har­ vard 45-yard line, Strieker returned the ball 23 yards to Marengo 32. Two running plays netted six yards before an incomplete pass set up a fourth-and-four situation for Harvard at the Marengo 26. Jones then connected with Robert Roth for CLC kickers handed 4-1 setback by Stevenson A fast Stevenson team proved to be too much for Crystal Lake Cen- tral a ouccer team Friday afternoon. Stevenson posted a 4-1 at Cen­ tral's Field in handing the Tigers their second straight non-confer­ ence loss. CLC is 0-2 on the young season. Scott Puma scored the Tigers' lone goal for the match in the third period, but Stevenson had built up a 3-0 lead by that time. Central has some time off before they open the Fox Valley Confer­ ence season Friday, Sept. 6 at Cary. Harvard throttles Marengo, 7-0 Harvard travels to Marian Cen­ tral next Friday while Marengo hosts Sandwich. In Grid Scene '85, Haak was mis­ quoted. The statement should have read: But Haak wants ft clear that he doesn't want anyone to think he doens't have high expectations. a nine-yard gain to keep the drive alive. Marengo Coach Kelly Camp, whose team finished 1-8 last year, said he was not satisfied with the game's outcome, but said he did see some bright sports. "You're never satisfied with a loss, but we saw some things we can improve and build on. I don't mean that all negative," Camp said. Harvard's Gallagly picked off an pass from Marengo quarterback Kevin Shelton and apparently had another TD. But the score was called back because of a penalty. Harvard also missed a 19-yard field goal try in the fourth quarter. A 53-yard punt by Harvard's Jones was downed by Bart Iverson at the Marengo seven yard-line on the first play of the fourth quarter helped hold the Indians' offense in check. /