High school football: Huntley’s biggest hurdle still is trying to beat Cary-Grove

HUNTLEY – Of all the Cary-Grove players Huntley dealt with the past two seasons – guys like Trevor Ruhland, Michael Gomez, Jason Gregoire and Tyler Pennington – the smallest Trojan proved to be the biggest pain.

“Larkin Hanselmann, that kid’s a beast,” Red Raiders offensive lineman Kyle Witt said. “He’s always scoring against us. I remember my sophomore year too, Larkin Hanselmann again.”

When Huntley (4-0) hosts Cary-Grove (4-0) at 7:15 p.m. Friday, Hanselmann, a 5-foot-7, 140-pound package of dynamite, will not be there to terrorize the Raiders. He and 14 other starters graduated, although the Trojans, in typical fashion, have plugged in new starters and again are a threat to win the Fox Valley Conference Valley Division.

Huntley has its eyes on the FVC Valley title, but to get there likely will require the one team it has never beaten since coming to the FVC in 2004.

“It would mean a lot [to beat C-G],” defensive end Tyler Larson said. “They always have a target on their back, they’ve always been winning. They have some great seasons, go 9-0 and go to state. They’re just a team we want to beat.”

The Raiders may be in their best spot ever to do that with the speed, size and experience they possess. Still, they know last year’s Class 7A state runners-up, ranked No. 3 in The Associated Press Class 6A poll this week, present a huge challenge.

“You’d love to beat a team that’s ranked high,” Raiders coach John Hart said. “You have so many goals for a season, it’s just one of the goals. It’s not the end-all, if they win or we win, both teams could still have a lot of success the rest of the season and in the playoffs. What we want is the competition, the fight, to get knocked down and come back and find a way to persevere at the end.”

Huntley was close two years ago, leading 13-7 with just more than two minutes remaining. Gregoire fired a 60-yard scoring pass to Hanselmann for the game-winner with 2:08 to go, stunning the Raiders and their fans.

Last season, Huntley scored on Jake Witt’s 1-yard run midway through the third quarter, and again it was Hanselmann and Gregoire hooking up for 60 yards. Then, Hanselmann ran a fake punt for another 60 yards to the Huntley 1, and the Trojans cruised to a 42-12 decision, the Raiders’ lone regular-season loss.

“What can you do? Cary-Grove’s Cary-Grove,” Kyle Witt said. “This would be a big step [for the program]. We’ve never beat them, we’ve never won the [division]. We have a lot of stuff to prove this year.”

Hart feels the keys for the Raiders are slowing down Pennington, C-G’s fullback in the option attack, preventing big plays and converting in the red zone, all areas where they came up short in previous years.

Conversely, Trojans coach Brad Seaburg lauds his team for its ability to make big plays happen in recent games against Huntley.

“The common denominator in those games was us making plays at key times,” Seaburg said. “We’ve had some explosive plays. We had a lot of turnovers from them.”

C-G beat Prairie Ridge, 21-14, in its opener, but neither the Trojans or Raiders have had other close games so far. C-G has outscored its opponents by 112 points, Huntley’s margin of victory is a combined 114.

“They have a lot of athleticism on offense,” Trojans safety Kevin Hughes said. “Their offensive line is big and strong, their quarterback [Anthony Binetti] has varsity experience and he’s a good player. Those are things we have to watch out for.”

Huntley will have to slow down the triple-option C-G runs with such precision, while leaning on Pennington, who Hart thinks is among the best players in the state.

“Everybody has their own job,” Larson said. “Everybody has one person. If everybody does their job we can stop the run.”