Nathan Greetham, Prairie Ridge run to FVC win against McHenry

McHENRY – Nathan Greetham pulled the dog tag he was wearing from under his uniform and proudly displayed the message it contained.

“Selfless,” the Prairie Ridge senior said. “We don’t play for ourselves. We play for each other. And we did that in the second half tonight.”

Prairie Ridge (1-0) used its punishing ball-control ground game and held off a furious fourth-quarter surge by the Warriors in posting a 36-28 Fox Valley Conference victory at McCracken Field. It was McHenry’s first game on its new stadium turf.

Led by Greetham (28 carries, 208 yards, 2 TD) and quarterback Tyler Vasey (18 rushes, 198 yards, 2 TDs), the Wolves amassed 464 yards of total offense. Freshman Luke Vanderwiel added 68 yards on eight carries and scored twice in his varsity debut.

Each Prairie Ridge player has a tag with his name and the “selfless” message on it, Greetham explained. The players exchange tags with a random teammate and their game effort is in honor of the person whose tag they are wearing.

“It was not our best first half. We were playing selfish football,” Greetham said. “But we regrouped and we played for one another and that’s what led us in the second half.”

The teams scored touchdowns in each of the first two quarters to create a 14-all tie at half. Vanderwiel opened the scoring with a 13-yard run and Greetham added a 22-yard touchdown in the second quarter. For the Warriors (0-1), quarterback Dom Caruso (17-for-29, 260 yards, 2 TDs) hit Frank Cermak (five catches, 105 yards) for 41 yards and Zach Maness (eight receptions, 112 yards) from 15 yards out.

Vasey scored on runs of 80 and 35 in the second half. His second score gave PR a 36-21 lead with 6:55 remaining, but the Warriors responded with a two-minute, 68-yard march capped by Dylan Drumheller’s 8-yard run with 2:18 left. The Warriors attempted an on-side kick, however, Vasey recovered, and PR ran out the clock.

“Prairie Ridge is a good team and tonight they made a few more plays than we did,” first-year McHenry coach Joel Beard said. “We had a couple of times when we needed to execute but we didn’t. But both teams played hard and I am incredibly proud of our kids.”

For the Wolves, it was a game coach Chris Schremp couldn’t wait to see in the Saturday-morning film session.

“Of course, you want to come in and play as clean a game as possible, but being the first game you know that’s not going to happen,” Schremp said. “The penalties [7 for 77 yards] and the turnover [one fumble] are things you don’t like to see, but we know we can fix them. We’ll watch film and make the necessary corrections.”