High school football: Matthew Huizinga provides highlight as Batavia opens new field with big win

BATAVIA – Matthew Huizinga made sure Batavia football fans didn’t have to wait long for a highlight as the Bulldogs debuted their new turf field.

Huizinga caught the opening kickoff and took it 92 yards for a touchdown that was the opening salvo in the Bulldogs’ 48-0 win against Elgin on Sept. 16.

“I was set to go left and I saw Connor [Oroni] and Dana [Anderson] pancake someone so there was a hug opening, so I just took off,” the senior said. “It was beautiful blocking. It’s all thanks to them.”

It was the kind of performance Huizinga and his teammates were hoping to have as they finally got to don full pads for the hometown fans and show off their new field to the masses.

“We’ve waiting a very long time to play on this field,” Huizinga said. “Practice has been nice and then our first game felt very nice. It’s a very nice thing to have. We’re grateful for it.”

The clock read 11:56 left in the first quarter when Huizinga entered the end zone. Either there was a slight snafu with the time keeping or Huizinga exceeded the pace of world champion sprinter Usain Bolt.

“He’s one of fastest people in the world, four seconds in the 100 meters,” said Dennis Piron, Batavia’s football and boys track coach. “He’s pretty quick. I keep bugging him about track, so maybe he’ll come out this year.”

Huizinga’s return touchdown provided some early fireworks, and the Bulldogs exploded for two more touchdowns in the first quarter.

After an Elgin punt, Riley Cooper connected with Thomas Stuttle for a 50-yard pass that set up Reggie Phillips’ 6-yard scoring run at the 8:04 mark of the first quarter.

Johnny Walsh, who before the game was introduced as homecoming king, picked off an Elgin pass, and on the next play Huizinga took a lateral pass from Cooper and went 13 yards for a score that made it 20-0 with 4:45 left in the first.

Phillips (13-yard run), Stuttle (24-yard pass from Cooper) and Huizinga (24-yard pass from Ben Weerts) scored touchdowns in the second quarter for a 41-0 halftime lead.

Stuttle’s touchdown came after three stellar defensive plays. Andrew Heinz and Quintin Caithamer had back-to-back sacks before Jake Robinson blocked a punt. Robinson blocked another punt before Huizinga’s second-quarter touchdown.

In addition to it being homecoming week and the debut of the new playing surface, Piron was inducted into Batavia’s Hall of Honor. It was an additional distraction the Bulldogs capably handled.

“With homecoming there’s a lot of distractions, but the kids were great,” Piron said. “I had a lot going on with the school with the Hall of Honor thing, so I appreciated them kind of putting up with some extra things.

“I’m proud if them. It’s an opponent they know is struggling a little bit and trying their best, but we wanted to play a clean game and try not to punt if we didn’t have to. Keep the ball moving with plays we thought we could get, and the kids did a good job executing those plays when we ended to execute.”

The first play of the fourth quarter was the exclamation point on the game. Weerts found Jeremiah Evers on a short crossing route, and Evers took it 12 yards for the final score.

Evers had 62 yards rushing, and Anderson (28 yards), Phillips (25 yards), Elijah Green (24 yards) and Huizinga (14 yards) figured prominently in the run game.

The Bulldogs efficiently racked up 296 yards of offense in the game while holding Elgin to just 14 yards of total offense and four first downs.

“Our defense and our offense started the season young, so they’re learning,” Piron said. “We had some young kids on both sides of the ball, and each week we’ve gotten better and grown a little bit. The first two games were quality opponents and forced us to find ourselves a little bit.”

Batavia improved to 4-0 overall and 2-0 in the Upstate Eight River with the win, but the football team was not the first BHS varsity squad to play a game on the new field. The boys soccer team faced Elgin before the football game and fell 4-2.

After getting a glimpse of home, the football team will hit the road to face St. Charles East in a matchup of undefeated teams.

“St. Charles East is a very good team,” Huizinga said. “We’re going to treat it like a state championship game, so we’re going to be working hard to get ready.”

The 4-0 start is impressive, but Piron knows the level of difficulty will only increase for his team as the season goes on.

“I’m very proud of where we’re at. Now we’re coming up against [St. Charles] East, which is very much improved and looks fantastic, and then we’re going to have to play Geneva, which is our big rival, then a very good South Elgin team and North,” the coach said. “We’re hitting the meat of our schedule right now, so we better be ready to play.”

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Week 5 matchup

Batavia at St. Charles East

What: Upstate Eight River football

When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 23

Where: 1020 Dunham Road, St. Charles

Records: BHS 4-0 (2-0 UER); SCE 4-0 (2-0)

Outlook: This game won’t decide the conference champion, but it will go a long way to deciding the race. It will be a showdown on contrasting styles as Batavia’s balanced offense goes against East’s run-heavy triple-option attack. The Saints are riding high after a 28-21 win against rival St. Charles North.