Huntley cruises to FVC win against Crystal Lake Central

CRYSTAL LAKE – It didn’t take Huntley long to set the tone against Fox Valley Conference foe Crystal Lake Central on Friday night.

Red Raiders linebacker Charles Condon III picked off the first pass of the season by the Tigers near midfield just 54 seconds into the game.

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Seven plays later, Huntley senior Braylon Bower (10-for-19 passing, 205 yards) found Jordan Oruche on a 23-yard pass play for a touchdown. It was the first of three TD tosses by Bower on the night, as the Red Raiders (1-0, 1-0 FVC) cruised to a 35-7 win over the Tigers.

“Getting the ball back right away got us all fired up,” Bower said. “We were really excited to get out there after a long summer of drills and practices against each other.”

Huntley’s defense didn’t allow a Central first down until the eight-minute mark of the second quarter.

By that time, the Red Raiders were ahead 21-0, courtesy of a pair of first-quarter TD runs by Reichen Dvorak (15 carries, 70 yards) and Gavin Havens (18 carries, 104 yards). Both TD runs were from 2 yards out, as Huntley racked up 213 rushing yards on 43 attempts.

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The star of the show through the air was junior wide receiver Wyatt Fleck, a Huntley native who transferred from St. Viator during the offseason. He needed only three receptions to rack up 102 yards, which included a pair of TDs, both coming on flawlessly executed fade routes from Bower.

Fleck’s first TD grab with 9:21 left in the first half extended Huntley’s advantage to 28-0, a margin they took into the locker room at halftime. Fleck struck again seven minutes into the third quarter, this time courtesy of a 26-yard dart by Bower into the back right of the end zone.

“We’ve worked hard all summer on those timing routes,” Fleck said, “almost every day.”

Defensively, Huntley got its second interception of the night midway through the fourth quarter when linebacker Ethan Albertson stepped in front of a pass deep in Tigers’ territory.

Defensive lineman/linebacker Travis Dudycha, meanwhile, had a pair of sacks for the Red Raiders.

“Both times I got to their quarterback, I knew their tight end was running a passing route and wouldn’t be blocking me,” Dudycha said. “So it gave me an open lane each time.”

Huntley coach Mike Naymola was mostly pleased with what he saw.

“Our defense set the tone right out of the gate,” Naymola said. “We were physical, which was great to see.”

“And on offense, we have nine new starters at 11 positions. So we weren’t sure what we might learn until the game started. In general, our guys did a pretty solid job there, too, aside from some drives where we didn’t finish and didn’t execute – which we will need to clean up.”

The Tigers (0-1, 0-1 FVC) threw for 178 combined yards.

On their final drive, backup QB Aidan Niederkorn, a junior, completed 8 of 10 passes for 80 yards, capped by a 20-yard TD strike to Ben Freese.

It broke up the potential Huntley shutout, with only 12.1 seconds left in the game.

“I told our guys in the postgame huddle I was proud of their effort,” Central coach Dirk Stanger said. “We’re a really young team, but we fought hard tonight.

“Each week, we know we will keep learning and growing as a group. And it was nice to finish the game on an upbeat note on our final drive, even though it wasn’t against Huntley’s top unit. Credit to our guys for showing heart and effort the entire game.”