Baker Carries Trojans' to Homecoming Win

Coming off a difficult loss to and struggling early against Hampshire on Saturday afternoon, needed a spark to get their offense going.

That spark came in the form of Quinn Baker, who took over for Corey Laktas at quarterback and ran for 196 yards and four touchdowns as the Trojans won their Homecoming game 35-6 over the Whip-Purs.

Hampshire (0-4) came out and got inside the Cary 10-yard line twice in the opening quarter but both teams the Trojans defense held Hampshire up short of the goal line.

The game remained tied midway into the second quarter before Baker struck for the first time on a two-yard run to give Cary a 7-0 lead. Baker added an 11-yard run with under a minute to go in the half to send the Trojans into the break with a 14-0 cushion.

Baker would put the game fully out of reach three minutes into the second half on a 90-yard sprint down the middle and scored his fourth touchdown five minutes later on a 17-yard run through the Hampshire defense to give Cary a 28-0 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Marcus Thimios would score from 11 yards out during the first minute of the final quarter for Cary’s last score. Hampshire’s Chase Lundry would break the shutout bid for C-G with a four-yard run with three minutes to go.

Baker said that the decision was made to change up some things on offense.

“We were struggling to execute and we just thought we mix things up a little bit and we might have some success,” Baker said. “We really just went to the basics and didn’t do anything too complicated and it worked out for us. Our offensive line executed really well and was getting a good push.”

Cary gained all of their 394 yards on the afternoon in the rushing game while holding Hampshire to 224 total yards. C-G coach Brad Seaburg said that his team has two very good quarterbacks in Laktas and Baker.

“Quinn was reading things a little bit better and was making plays so we kind of just stuck with him this game,” Seaburg said. “We’ve been rotating them the first two games a bit. We feel fortunate to have two good quarterbacks.”

Cary improved to 3-1 on the season with the win and now travels to Algonquin to face 4-0 Jacobs on Friday night.

Seaburg said that preparation starts right away for the Trojans’ next Fox Valley Conference Valley Division game.

“We talked about it, we have a shorter week to recover physically, we have a shorter week to prepare like we normally would so we (the coaches) will get right back to work tomorrow and the kids will on Monday,” Seaburg said.