Geneva football notes: Temple leaves with knee injury

CARY – Geneva senior wide receiver/defensive back Pace Temple left early in the second quarter of Saturday’s Class 7A quarterfinal against Cary-Grove with an apparent torn MCL in his left knee.

Temple, also the team's holder on point-after touchdown attempts, was injured after hauling in a high snap after Geneva's first touchdown in an eventual 44-26 defeat and darting down the left sideline for the end zone.

"It was just diving in and someone hit me from both sides," Temple said. "It just buckled on me. I knew it would be [bad]."

Temple hobbled off the field under his own power and held out hope for a return, but doctors ended that optimism when they evaluated Temple at halftime.

He is set to undergo an MRI on Monday. Temple also is a top returning guard for the Vikings' boys basketball team.

"I'm hoping that it wasn't that serious," Vikings coach Rob Wicinski said. "We'll see."

Temple used crutches and wore a knee brace while supporting the team on the sidelines during the second half.

Good to be back

Geneva played in its first quarterfinal since the 2008 team finished as 7A runners-up.

"I mean, we had kids in our school that didn't even know what a second-round playoff game was," Wicinski said. "So the seniors did a great job. I'm really proud of them. I'm going to miss them. They did a great job of taking the program to a place where we've been in the past."

Cap tipping

Cary-Grove’s first-team defense allowed its first points since Week 6, as Geneva pushed the Trojans like no other opponent this season.

"I would have preferred a running clock [40-point lead], but when we were up, 19-0, then they got a couple scores, and it was like, ‘OK, this is a ballgame,’ " Trojans coach Brad Seaburg said. "It was a battle the rest of the way. We knew our kids could compete and our kids proved it."

• Shaw Media’s Joe Stevenson contributed to this report.