Geneva upsets Cary-Grove in Class 6A semis, reaches 1st state championship game since 2008

GENEVA – Tony Chahino was still shy of 3 years old when Geneva hosted a state semifinal at Burgess Field and won to advance to the Class 7A state championship game in 2008.

The memories are fuzzy, but the Vikings’ big-armed quarterback remembers it well because he was there. He has the photos to prove it.

[ Photos: Cary-Grove vs. Geneva in Class 6A semifinals ]

Sixteen years later, Chahino and the Vikings are going back to the state finals.

Third-seeded Geneva upset No. 1 Cary-Grove 28-26 on Nov. 23 in the Class 6A semifinals and will face another No. 1 seed, East St. Louis (12-1), in the championship at 1 p.m. Saturday at Illinois State University’s Hancock Stadium.

Geneva (12-1) has never won a state title in football.

“This is everything I dreamed for as a little kid,” said Chahino, now a 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior. “I grew up in Geneva, I was born in Geneva and I wanted to be a Viking. There were opportunities for me to leave and go to another school but I stayed here.

“I always thought of this moment right here.”

Chahino, whose right hand was covered in blood after breaking the skin on his thumb on a run that helped the Vikings hold on, completed 22-of-25 passes for a season-high 388 yards and a pair of touchdowns to Georgia commit Talyn Taylor (11 catches, 206 yards) and senior Finnegan Weppner (five catches, 102 yards).

“He’s a stud,” Geneva coach Boone Thorgesen said of Chahino, who has thrown for 46 touchdowns and 3,000-plus yards this season. “He’s carried us, made all the right decisions. Very proud of the kid.”

Cary-Grove (12-1), last year’s 6A champion, entered with a 19-game winning streak with one loss in its previous 21 playoff games.

The Vikings’ opportunistic defense prevented the Trojans from reaching their eighth state championship game and third since 2021. Cary-Grove still got its yards – 347 rushing and 57 passing – but Geneva came up big when it mattered.

After Cary-Grove senior quarterback Peyton Seaburg broke free up the middle for a 42-yard touchdown run with 5:30 left in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to 28-26, a group of Vikings defenders led by Dane Turner and Troy Velez stopped fullback Holden Boone a yard short of the goal line on the 2-point try.

The Trojans had to go for 2 because the Vikings blocked an extra-point attempt on Cary-Grove’s second touchdown drive of the first half.

“Our defense deserves all the credit in the world,” Thorgesen said. “[Cary-Grove] is a juggernaut for a reason. They’re in this position every year. To be able to stop them on two [extra-point tries], what an unbelievable job.”

The Trojans also came up with big plays on defense. Preston Walsh intercepted Chahino on a ball that was tipped by Taylor, which led to Cary-Grove scoring on a Boone 10-yard TD run with 10.5 seconds left in the first half.

With Geneva looking to put the game away in the fourth quarter, Trojans senior Michael Dunkin recovered a fumble on his own 12. That set up Cary-Grove’s last scoring drive. The Trojans went 88 yards in 11 plays to get to within a 2-point conversion of tying the game.

Seaburg had no hesitation as to what the Trojans would do.

“I have complete confidence in our offense whenever we’re out there,” said Seaburg, who had 176 total yards and two TDs (one rushing, one passing). “I had no doubt.”

On the 2-point try, the Trojans went back to what has worked well all season.

“We gave it to our best kid in the backfield and thought we could get three yards that way,” said Cary-Grove coach Brad Seaburg, Peyton’s dad. “They just made a nice play.”

Boone, who ran for a game-high 227 yards on 22 attempts with TD runs of 52 and 10 yards, felt good about the play.

“I was just thinking, ‘Stick my foot and get upfield,’ ” Boone said. “Tried to push my line into the end zone, but it just wasn’t there. If something was there, I didn’t see it.”

Geneva sophomore Nelson Wendell, a late-season call-up from JV, left his mark with a sack, interception and a recovery on an onside kick. The onside kick came after the Vikings went up 28-20 on Michael Rumoro’s second touchdown run.

“That play, we’ve been drawing it up all week in practice,” Wendell said. “The ball bounced off [a Cary-Grove player’s] chest. I knew I had it.”

Taylor, a senior, played in last year’s state quarterfinal against Cary-Grove but wasn’t healthy. Geneva lost that game 41-7.

“I was five weeks out of meniscus surgery, but I still played because that’s my nature,” said Taylor, who went over 1,500 receiving yards Saturday. “I had this game on my mind for a while.”

Bennett Konkey added 61 yards on four catches for Geneva.

Seaburg completed 2-of-5 passes, including a 37-yard TD to Landon Barnett on fourth-and-4 that put the Trojans up 20-14 with 6:20 left in the third. Luca Vivaldelli added one catch for 20 yards.

Two-way lineman Ty Drayton was one of many seniors who put on their Trojans jerseys for the last time. After shaking hands with Geneva, Cary-Grove got in line to high-five family and fans behind the chain-link fences on the visitor’s side.

“This game means so much to us, but it means a lot to other people, too,” Drayton said. “Coach [Seaburg] makes a point of saying it all the time, putting on the blue and white is an honor. I hope the juniors, the sophomores, the freshmen carry on the legacy and ball out next year.”

Brad Seaburg, who is 137-29 over 14 seasons, thanked his seniors for another remarkable run.

“Our senior class is a great group of kids,” he said. “You’ve got to have that leadership to get this far and advance. We’ve been in a lot of big games, and recently we’ve won a lot of the big games. Today we came up short, but we were there.

“Just really proud of everything our kids do for our program.”