Cary-Grove senior Kennedy Manning joined Cary-Grove’s winning football program three years ago.

The tiny wide receiver was the only girl on the freshman team in her fourth and final year of tackle football. She chose tennis as her fall sport the past two years, figuring the lack of physical contact would save her body for basketball season.

Then Cary-Grove announced it would field a flag football team for the first time this fall.

“It became an option,” said Manning, who played flag football in elementary school and started tackle football in sixth grade. “So I was like, ‘I’m going to play this [sport],’ because I love football.”

Wednesday night, Manning and her teammates ushered in perhaps the start of another winning Cary-Grove football program.

Behind Manning’s 180 rushing yards, 163 passing yards, four combined touchdowns and two interceptions, the third-seeded Trojans rallied to beat No. 6 McHenry 28-27 to capture the McHenry Regional championship.

“She’s pretty intense, like Peyton Manning,” C-G coach Cara Neff said of her senior quarterback/safety. “She makes things happen like Peyton Manning.”

The win earned C-G (11-4) a berth in Monday’s 5 p.m. McHenry Sectional semifinal against the winner of the Rockford Guilford Regional.

McHenry (12-5) was looking to avenge its regular-season loss to C-G. The Warriors put themselves in position to pull off the upset with a strong first half on the strength of junior QB Brooklyn Anderson’s TD passes of six yards to Addison Hoffmann and seven yards to Morgan Frederick.

McHenry led 14-0 with less than a minute left in the half and had the ball. But Manning intercepted a deflected pass, and the Trojans took over at the McHenry 28 with 30 seconds left. Three plays later, Manning hit Brynlee Ahlquist in the end zone from 21 yards out with seven seconds on the clock, pulling the Trojans to within 14-6 at halftime.

“It definitely was a setback, but we were able to clear it and fight back,” said Anderson, who finished 14-of-24 passing for 237 yards, three TDs and three interceptions. “The ability to clear your head in this game is probably one of the most important things you have to do. With the way the ball changes, you have to be able to clear [your mind] and move on to the next play.”

C-G carried the momentum into the second half. On the first play, Manning dropped back, then scrambled, veered right and took off down the sideline. Her 86-yard sprint to the end zone and ensuing PAT pass to Aria Stanton evened the score at 14-all.

“I give all the credit to my teammates on that [TD run] because the way the play is designed they’re all running the other way, hoping that I can make something happen,” Manning said. “Because they ran their routes so well, the entire defense just went with them, and that’s what gave me the opportunity.”

C-G scored again on its next possession, set up by Claire Williams’ interception at the McHenry 27. Two plays later, Manning’s 2-yard TD pass to Sofia Seaburg had the Trojans up 20-14.

Back came resilient McHenry. Hoffmann raced 62 yards to the end zone, and Frederick caught the PAT pass to put the Warriors back in front 21-20 midway through the third.

The score remained that way until Manning hit Stanton (eight catches, 86 yards) from the 2 with 4:29 left in the fourth quarter. Manning’s third TD pass of the game put C-G back in front and capped a 10-play, 89-yard drive that saw her go 4-of-5 passing for 38 yards and run for 41 yards.

McHenry wasn’t done. Trailing 28-21, the Warriors scored their fourth TD of the game when Anderson and Hoffmann (seven catches, 91 yards) connected from 39 yards out with 2:23 left.

Down 28-27, McHenry went for the one-point conversion to tie the score, but Anderson’s pass fell incomplete.

“We figured we would [try to] tie,” McHenry coach Dennis Hutchinson said. “We had a close game with them the last time. I was hoping our defense could have gotten a three-and-out there and gotten the ball back to go down and take the lead.”

Instead, Manning (15-of-25 passing) picked up first downs on an 11- and 18-yard completions to Stanton, and the Trojans ran out the clock.

“They just persevered through all the struggles,” Neff said of her players. “There were a couple of plays that did not go our way, and we made some mistakes, but we didn’t let them ruin us. We came back and adjusted. That was my favorite part [of the win].”