Cary-Grove blanks Huntley

Huntley's Brett Kleckner (8) gaurds teammate Marcus Popenfoose (34) during a punt to visiting Cary-Grove Friday night.
(Michael Smart/Staff Photographer)

October 2, 2009By GENE CHAMBERLAIN For The Courier-News

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HUNTLEY -- It's normally no cause for celebration when your offense finishes with three first downs, and two of those in the final 20 seconds.

Still, Huntley's football team came away pumping a few fists in the air and some emotional hollering after a post-game huddle with coach Steve Graves on Friday following their rain-soaked 23-0 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division loss to top-ranked Cary-Grove.

"I think all week there was a lot of negativity not only around the school but a lot of people counted us out of this game," linebacker-fullback Marcus Popenfoosd said. "And us as a team I really thought we bonded together this week and we thought to ourselves this was a great opportunity. We're getting to play a team ranked No. 1 in the state (6A) and we're going to give them everything we've got.

"That's why we're proud of ourselves right now because we left everything we had out on the field."

The Red Raiders (3-3, 0-2) became the first team to hold Cary-Grove (6-0, 2-0) scoreless in the first quarter and very nearly did it for an entire half.

Then Trojans' running back Alex Hembry made like Gale Sayers in the mud, running to his right, stopping on a dime, cutting back diagonally and sprinting for a 60-yard gain to set up Eric Chandler's 5-yard touchdown run with 1:04 left in the first half.

"That's a great running back," Graves said. "I told the kids when we watched him on film 'You're going to see one of the better running backs you're ever going to have an opportunity to play against.

"Our kids did a great job of bottling up the front side and he cut it back and we didn't get the overlap on the back side we needed."

Graves said at the time he knew the Red Raiders needed to stay within one score. The weather made passing virtually impossible as three combined completions for 18 total yards and two interceptions shows.

Huntley wasn't up to keeping it that close much longer. The change in the game came in an unusual way. Bottled up at their 4-yard line after the kickoff to start the second half, quarterback Brandon Luczak rolled right and was knocked to the ground in the end zone by Rich Kersten for a safety and a 9-0 lead.

"The field position flipped then," Graves said.

And Cary-Grove took advantage, driving 42 yards after the ensuing free kick to score on Hembry's 18-yard TD run. Four seconds into the fourth quarter, Chandler scored on a 2-yard run for the 23-0 lead en route to the Trojans' 34th straight Fox Valley win.

Hembry finished with 130 yards on 12 carries and Chandler with 125 on 21 carries as Cary-Grove outgained Huntley 298 yards to 67 on the ground. The Trojans had 54 plays to Huntley's 34 and 13 first downs to the Red Raiders' three.

Yet suffering three straight losses for the first time since 2005 didn't bother the Red Raiders. They'd held a team averaging 52 points a game to 23.

"We know we're not 11 strong," Graves said. "We know we have holes. So we ask people who are supposed to play hard to play harder and they did tonight.

"We have weak links in the chain that get exposed and we understand that, but in spite of that have to ask others who are very strong to carry more than their share. And they did."

CARY-GROVE 23, HUNTLEY 0

Cary-Grove 0 7 9 7 -- 23

Huntley 0 0 0 0 -- 0

C -- Eric Chandler 5 run (Nick Taylor kick), 1:02

C -- Safety, Brandon Luczak tackled in end zone by Rich Kersten, 11:53

C -- Alex Hembry 18 run (Taylor kick), 6:18

C -- Eric Chandler 2 run (Taylor kick), 11:56

C-G HUNT

First downs 13 3

Rushes-yards 49-298 28-67

Passing 1-3-1 2-9-1

Passing yards 4 14