Huntley rolls up points on McHenry
Huntley continued to show how prolific its offense is by scoring all of its points in the first 32-plus minutes of a 55-28 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division football victory Friday night over visiting McHenry.
But the Red Raiders (7-1, 3-1), who are averaging 43 points a game and surpassed the half-century mark for the fourth time this season, still believe they can be even more explosive after scoring on their first five possessions and finishing with 483 yards of total offense.
"If we keep doing what we should be doing we should be able to score on every drive," senior receiver Brandon Altergott said after catching touchdown passes of 66 and 90 yards from Anthony Binetti and returning a kickoff 84 yards for a score.
"That's the goal every time we touch the ball," Binetti said after completing 10 of 19 passes for 286 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Senior running back Casey Haayer (9 carries, 90 yards) rushed for first-half touchdowns of 8, 34 and 17 yards and freshman Eric Mooney (6 carries, 54 yards) had a 13-yard touchdown run. Defensive lineman Jeremy Behnke also caught a 2-yard touchdown pass as an eligible receiver on fourth down on the final play of the first half as Huntley scored three times in 5:35 to turn a tie into a 41-21 lead.
The Huntley line of Justus Wood, Ethan Zeller, Zachary Johnson, Marcus LaPorta and Tyler Kastner led the way to 7 touchdowns in 8 possessions through three quarters. But there were also eyes on the bigger picture of a potential home playoff opener in two weeks.
"Brandon Altergott and Binetti had great games and we protected them," said Huntley coach John Hart. "We had good pieces in a lot of areas but we didn't play great as a team anywhere.
"Whatever (our opponents) do out here we have the ability to take advantage of it. As long as we're clicking we're a pretty hard team to defend."
Especially with Altergott back at full speed after being limited in last week's victory at Crystal Lake South by a sprained MCL in his knee. McHenry (3-5, 1-3) recovered the onside kick to start the second half and got within 41-28 on Jack Machometa's 2-yard touchdown run.
Altergott got the points right back when he took a bouncing kickoff at his 16 and bounced outside and into the end zone. Then, two plays after McHenry was stopped a yard short of the end zone, Binetti hit Altergott flying down the left sideline for the 90-yard score.
"There's no one who can catch him," said Binetti, who has 1,555 yards passing and 19 touchdowns.
"I felt offensively we came out strong like we always do," Altergott said, "and we had to keep making plays like we always do."
Especially against a McHenry offense averaging 36 points a game. Mike Briscoe threw for 246 of his team's 456 yards and 2 touchdowns and Alec Glauser rushed for 125 on 18 carries.
"If we put together a great game by our defense and a great game by our offense we'll be a tough team to beat," Binetti said. "We have the potential but we've just got to do it."