McHenry County notes: Cary-Grove kicker Jadon Apgar steps in at fullback as Trojans roll in season opener

Cary-Grove kicker Jadon Apgar knocked in 36 of 41 extra points and 2 of 3 field goals last season and usually gave the Class 6A state champions an advantage on kickoffs as he hit 50 of 77 for touchbacks.

With 1:19 left in the state championship against East St. Louis, Apgar did his job, sending the kickoff out of the end zone and not allowing the Flyers an opportunity to return it.

Apgar’s big leg has led to lots of NCAA Division I interest, and this summer he visited camps at Iowa, Missouri, Missouri State and Toledo, among others. In July, he received his first offer from Minnesota Duluth.

But in Week 1 against Burlington Central, Apgar was asked to do more than kick.

With fullback Logan Abrams – last year’s Northwest Herald area leader with 1,590 yards and 26 TDs – out with an injury, Apgar took his spot at fullback, running the ball 20 times for 60 yards in a 27-3 victory. C-G coach Brad Seaburg said Abrams is day-to-day ahead of Week 2.

Cary-Grove also was without RB Holden Boone, who was competing in the Masters CrossFit Games in Birmingham, Alabama. Despite that, the Trojans didn’t miss a beat, piling up 300-plus rushing yards in the win.

Senior QB Peyton Seaburg led the team with 137 yards and three TDS. The Trojans also used senior Michael Massat in the backfield, showing off their depth and ability to rotate players in and still be effective.

“What we’ve found over the years is it truly is a next-man up mentality,” Brad Seaburg said. “It was really good to see a kid like Jadon Apgar step in as our fullback. He’s a Division-I caliber kicker. And I don’t think there’s many Division-I caliber kickers in the country who can play fullback in a flexbone system.”

Apgar had played fullback mostly as a backup and also on JV, but Friday was his biggest challenge yet.

He passed with flying colors.

“He’s a fantastic kicker,” Seaburg said. “He had two or three touchbacks [against Central], and he had some towering kickoffs that make it really tough on return teams. And those were coming after 10-, 12-, 15-play drives.

“It’s really impressive what he did.”

Whatever works: Dundee-Crown senior RB Terrion Spencer ran for a TD and threw for another in a 20-14 season-opening win over Crystal Lake South. His 4-yard TD pass to Anthony Jobe gave D-C the lead 14-7 at halftime, but it came on a play that wasn’t intended to be a pass.

Spencer received the ball on a double handoff and improvised when he saw the linebacker leave Jobe open.

“I told coach to put the ball in my hands and good things will happen,” Spencer said. “The play wasn’t even for me to throw. I just read the linebacker, I trusted my guy [Jobe] to catch the ball, and he did.”

D-C coach Mike Steinhaus said the Chargers dressed only 26 players for Friday’s game. It was D-C’s first win over South since the COVID-19-shortened season.

“It’s been a few years [since we beat South], but it’s been a few years for a lot of teams,” Steinhaus said. “For me, it’s all about the kids. I was just really happy for our kids to get that winning feeling from all that hard work a lot of them have put in since last November.

“I only had 26 dressed kids that game, and it’s a battle of attrition to make sure everyone gets through and isn’t cramping like crazy. We have a school of 2,600 students and there’s about 26, 28 juniors, seniors and a few sophomores who want to play varsity football. That’s where we’re at.”

Whip-Purs hold on: Hampshire earned a 17-16 win in overtime against McHenry on Friday, with the Whips stopping the Warriors on a 2-point conversion to seal the victory

Hampshire coach Shane Haak said it took a team true effort to come away with the win.

“It was a fun game to be a part of,” Haak said. “I think that’s something we really take pride in, is getting 11 hats to the football. We got multiple hats to them. We stand up the back, and we’ve got our second, third, fourth, fifth guy coming to finish it. Just good teamwork and good team tackling.”

The Whips were without starting running back Cole Klawikowski, who was unavailable because of injury, Haak said. Klawikowski was one of the area’s top RBs last season with over 1,100 yards rushing. Tymere Marshall and Arshawn Rupert were the two main ball carriers, along with DeMario Prude.

In total, eight players got carries for the Whips, who totaled 256 yards on the ground.

Welcome back: Alden-Hebron’s John Lalor, who coached the Giants for 17 seasons from 2003-19 with a 103-67 record, led his team to a 36-22 win against Orangeville in their Illinois 8-Man Football Association opener Saturday. Last year’s coach, Tim Oman, now is on the staff at Woodstock North.

Lalor, who is the school’s athletic director, is happy to be back.

“It felt good, it felt like I was home again,” Lalor said. “I badly [missed it].”

Lalor and Oman, who coached the Giants for two years, made the choice to go a different direction at the end of last season.

“In all honestly, I’m getting close to retirement. I wanted to bring some young guys along who might take over after I’m gone,” Lalor said. “I wanted to make some changes, and we thought it was best for both of us. He’s doing a great job at [North]. I know they ran like a truck the other night [538 rushing yards in a 69-22 win over Elmwood Park].”

Jake Kleven, a 2006 A-H grad who played at Wisconsin-La Crosse and is Lalor’s nephew, is on the staff, along with last year’s starting QB Ben Vole.

• Shaw Local correspondents Thom Gippert and Andy Tavegia contributed to this report.