Huntley's ground game sinks Burlington Central
Huntley senior lineman Brad Walker thoroughly enjoyed watching Red Raiders running backs Alex Janke and Ryder Hunkins ripping off huge chunks of yardage Friday night.
"It feels great because I know I'm not going to be out there much longer if they keep running," said Walker, who is doing double duty this season on both lines.
The big gains came early and often in the third quarter as Huntley scored on its first three possessions to roll to a 35-0 victory over Burlington Central in their Fox Valley Conference division game at Red Raider Stadium.
Janke took a fourth-and-1 play 64 yards for a score on the fourth play of the second half. Hunkins took the next two Huntley offensive plays for 20 and 37 yards, setting up another touchdown.
Hunkins finished with nine carries for 157 yards and a touchdown; Janke ran seven times for 134 and two touchdowns.
"It felt amazing. I got to break a couple longer ones, but I need to get faster," Hunkins said. "The blocking was insane tonight. The blocking was crucial, it was awesome. The holes were huge, open, nothing I had to do but run."
Walker, Nick Peto, David Gehl, Jack Krelle III and Adam Wojnicki led the way for 434 total yards, 338 of which came on the ground.
"We played a little more football," Raiders coach Matt Zimolzak said. "Last week (a 42-8 win over Jacobs) we played two quarters of football. We played a little better, a little more focused today. Our offensive line is working better. Our defensive line is good. It's all coming together."
The Raiders (2-0, 2-0) had a big second half with 34 points in their win over Jacobs.
"I got a great staff," Zimolzak said. "They do a great job of seeing things and working together and taking advantage of what they give you."
Walker likes how the Raiders come out after halftime.
"I don't know, recently we shine in the second half for some reason," Walker said. "It just goes from there. (Burlington) fought. They really did fight for it. It happened that we fought a little bit harder today. But they put up a fight. I respect that."
Huntley limited the Rockets (0-2, 0-1) to 157 total yards. Running back Gavin Sarvis ran 22 times for 95 yards.
"Offensively, we made a lot of mistakes that we're not good enough to recover from yet because we're so young," Burlington coach Brian Melvin said. "This is a really good program, and they're really big."
It was the second week Huntley produced two 100-yard rushers. In Week 1, it was Janke and quarterback Bruno Bosman. Bosman ran for 40 yards and a touchdown and, for the second straight week, hit receiver Christian Brown for a score.
Bosman was 8 of 10 passing for 96 yards.