Huntley clinches share of FVC Valley by beating McHenry
Undefeated Huntley figured it was not facing a typical 1-win team playing out the string Saturday afternoon at McCracken Field in McHenry.
The end to a teachers strike gave the Warriors another chance to finish their season on the field after two forfeit losses. They also had homecoming and senior day festivities packed into their final home game.
But the Red Raiders were not about to let any of that get in the way of accomplishing their own missions. They clinched a share of their first Fox Valley Conference Valley Division football title and moved one step closer to their first perfect regular season and a high playoff seed with a 62-19 victory.
"We knew this would be their Super Bowl," Huntley coach John Hart said of a game that went from 13-13 with 9:25 left in the first half to a running clock the final 16:48.
"We just knew they were going to come out and play hard-nosed football," senior quarterback Anthony Binetti said after passing and rushing for 361 of Huntley's 534 total yards. "We knew we had to do our jobs. We definitely stepped it up and played Raider football. We don't take anyone lightly."
Eric Mooney and Casey Haayer combined for 5 rushing toudowns as Huntley (8-0, 4-0) hit its season high for points and picked up its seventh double-digit victory. It can wrap up the FVC Valley outright with a win next Friday at Dundee-Crown.
And seniors Dominic Swanson, Kyle Witt and Zack Vretenar, junior Austin Zeis and sophomore Cody Gaynor led the way up front as the Red Raiders overcame the sluggish start and 3 turnovers.
"I thought we came out a little bit slow, especially defensively, but we picked it up after that," Swanson said. "The O-line started firing off the ball better.
"Turnovers have basically been stopping us but we seem to come back and fight through adversity. One of the things we talk about is fighting through adversity every time."
McHenry (1-7, 0-4) has had plenty of that with nearly two weeks of missed practice and forfeits to Cary-Grove and D-C because of its strike. But a 22-yard touchdown run on a reverse by Kevin Szamlewski and a 45-yard touchdown pass from Matt Spooner (9-for-22, 211 yards) to Gio Purpura countered Huntley's first two scoring runs of 10 and 6 yards by Mooney (8 carries, 73 yards).
A long and winding 76-yard kick return by Tim Ryan, who blocked an extra point and returned a third-quarter interception 45 yards for a touchdown, set up a 12-yard scoring run by Binetti and a 42-point run by Huntley. Binetti went 17-for-26 passing for 271 yards with 2 interceptions and a touchdown pass to Matt Brannan and rushed for 90 yards on 13 carries.
"I thought our offense and defense played really well," Binetti said. "But we have a few little things we have to correct if we want to beat great teams."
Haayer (11 carries, 71 yards) had touchdown runs of 10 and 17 yards to make it 33-13 at halftime. After Mooney's 38-yard touchdown run to start the second half, the 6-foot-1, 275-pound Swanson got his opportunity to cash in on a deal with Hart to run the ball if Huntley was up by 4 touchdowns and the game was still in the third quarter.
Swanson plowed into the end zone for the first time for the 2-point conversion.
"It was pretty awesome," Swanson said with a smile.
Senior Charles Mecozzi also joined in the fun with a 1-yard touchdown run with 4:20 left. Hart then looked ahead at what needs to be cleaned up for a postseason run and also looked back at what McHenry had just been through.
"I feel for their coaches and especially their senior players, to lose a part of their senior year, regardless of what their record is," Hart said. "I think a lot of our sport and know how hard that is. I thought their kids came out and played really, really hard."