High school football: Notes on Huntley, Crystal Lake South, Marengo, Richmond-Burton and Cary-Grove

Eleven times Huntley tried. Eleven times Huntley failed to beat Cary-Grove.

So when the Red Raiders came up with an emotional win against the Trojans in Week 5, it would have been easy to let success lead to complacency, to fall into the so-called "trap game."

Instead, Huntley came up with a slogan: “Burn the boats.” Legends have it that commanders, when landing in hostile countries, would burn their boats as a sign their soldiers must fight and win or die.

“Burn the boat, it says leave nothing behind,” said senior running back Casey Haayer, who rushed for three touchdowns in the Red Raiders’ 49-7 victory over Minooka on Saturday in the first round of the Class 8A playoffs. “We go out there and we give it all we’ve got. There’s no turning back.”

The slogan is meant to remind the Red Raiders that every game and every week is a new challenge. Finishing with the first perfect regular season in school history is good. So is a dominant first-round playoff win against Minooka, one in which the Red Raiders virtually outplayed the Indians in every facet of the game.

But it's not the end goal. Coach John Hart reminded his team that a loss ends all of that, the perfect season, the playoff run and the seniors' seasons.

He told them to put the success behind them and focus on next week. Burn the boats.

“There’s no return. We’re either going to win or that’s it,” Hart said. “There wasn’t a choice. We talked about that in our first round. Now, they’ll be 0-0 every week."

Good to be back: The result was not what Crystal Lake South wanted, but after falling to Prairie Ridge, 56-12, in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs, coach Chuck Ahsmann took time to reflect on the season and the positive strides his team made.

“We were really proud of our seniors,” he said. “We challenged them at the beginning of the season. Our goal was to get back into the playoffs this year."

The Gators had qualified for the postseason 12 straight years from 2001 to 2012. But the past two seasons, they fell short at 4-5.

This year, with a 5-4 record and plenty of playoff points, they returned to the postseason. Though the loss ended the Gators' playoff run early, they are hopeful that it can start another streak of playoff appearances.

Indians’ strong defense: Marengo’s high-powered offense, which averages 39 points a game, gets much of the attention with the Indians’ 10-0 record, but the defense has been strong all season, as well.

Marengo averages allowing 10 points a game, and the defense held Coal City to 138 total yards in Friday’s 28-10 Class 4A first-round playoff victory.

“It’s just playing smart assignment football,” Marengo coach Matt Lynch said. “Run to the ball and play hard. Every man does his job and we’ll be OK. That’s what we preach.”

R-B thievery: St. Edward quarterback Dylan Mlinarich found some holes in Richmond-Burton’s pass defense Friday night, but the Rockets came through with four interceptions in their 55-26 Class 4A playoff win at R-B Athletic Complex.

Junior Blaine Bayer, who had three interceptions against North Boone on Oct. 16, had two picks, including a 60-yard return for a touchdown to open the second half, giving the Rockets a 41-14 lead.

Brady Gibson picked off Mlinarich on the Green Wave's first possession of the game, and Carter Miller had the fourth interception in the third quarter, setting up his own 21-yard touchdown run on R-B's next drive.

After scoring 27 points in the first quarter, however, Rockets coach Pat Elder thought his team let up over the next 12 minutes.

“We got a little better as the game went on, but our third-down defense struggled," Elder said. "We'll clean that up as we move forward. All of our levels have to work together. We get two levels working well and then the third one will slip up. And it was a different level every time. We just got to stay together and play together as a unit defensively.”

Mlinarich threw for 256 yards against the Rockets (9-1), connecting on a 46-yard touchdown in the second quarter and an 11-yard score late in the fourth with many of R-B's regulars out.

Next week, R-B faces Rockford Lutheran (10-0), which defeated Dixon, 49-7, Friday. The Rockets will have to deal with another athletic quarterback, as Payton Womack threw for five touchdowns, rushed for two and had over 400 yards of total offense in the Crusaders’ first-round win.

The Rockford Register Star's Jay Taft reported Monday that James Robinson, the state's all-time leading rusher, was cleared to play after missing Lutheran's first-round playoff game because of a foot injury, although they might try to keep Robinson off the field as long as possible.

The game is scheduled to be played at Harlem High School.

Collins' big debut: Making your first start at varsity quarterback can be stressful enough, but when that start happens to be in the playoffs it can really define ones character.

Cary-Grove backup quarterback Bobby Collins does get some repetitions in practice and has had some limited game action this season, but the playoffs are a different animal, and Collins was up to the challenge. The junior learned Wednesday he would start for J.P. Sullivan, who missed practice this week with an illness.

Collins threw only three passes Friday but completed them all, including a 55-yard touchdown to Kevin Hughes and a 78-yard touchdown on a fake punt to Jimmy Freskos.

Collins made all the right decisions while leading the triple-option offense that yielded 410 yards rushing.

“Belleville West is a good team and everybody really stepped up and helped us get the win,” Collins said. “The fake punt really seemed to bring their confidence down a notch.”

• Joe Stevenson, Alex Kantecki and Tim Sieck contributed to this report.