Cary-Grove overcomes 2-touchdown deficit in 4th quarter to stun Huntley

HUNTLEY – A heart-stopping football game never elevated the heart rate of Peyton Seaburg. Nor that of Holden Boone. Nor that of any Cary-Grove player, seemingly.

“I feel like a lot of our guys have been through a lot of big games in the past,” Seaburg said after helping lead Cary-Grove to a come-from-behind, 44-43 win over Huntley in a Fox Valley Conference thriller Friday night. “So we just have that composure and confidence that we can do what we want to do and execute.”

FVC front-runner Cary-Grove (7-0, 7-0) overcame deficits of 15-0, 36-29 and 43-29, the latter coming after Huntley (4-3, 4-3) scored with 6:16 left in the fourth quarter on Braylon Bower’s third touchdown pass of the game to Wyatt Fleck. The win for the Trojans avenged heartbreaking losses the past two years to the Red Raiders, 29-28 last season on C-G’s homecoming and 17-14 in 2022.

Huntley converted a conversion pass at the end of the game to win last year, and a young Cary-Grove couldn’t finish a late drive two seasons ago.

Cary-Grove pulled within 43-42 on Seaburg’s 20-yard TD pass to Quintin Witt with 1:22 left, then converted the PAT when Seaburg hit Boone in the end zone.

“We saw a couple of things early on in the game, and we just thought that the play would be there,” Peyton Seaburg said. “We had complete confidence in our guys.”

C-G’s resiliency was on display all night.

“Mentally, we don’t let ourselves get out of it,” Boone said after rushing for 158 yards, including TDs of 80 and 23 yards, on 13 carries. “I have so much trust in the defense and the other guys on the offense to do their job that I don’t really feel like there’s a situation where we’re completely out of it.”

Huntley quarterback Braylon Bower threw for 286 yards on 26-of-35 passing and four touchdowns, including three to St. Viator transfer Wyatt Fleck, who had 13 receptions for 167 yards. Colin Hochmuth had seven catches for 47 yards and caught a PAT pass, and Jordan Oruche had six receptions for 72 yards.

After Cary-Grove got within 43-36 on Boone’s 23-yard TD run with 3:45 left in the game, Huntley went three-and-out. A ground-ball punt gave the Trojans the ball at the Huntley 26, and three plays later Seaburg hit Witt in the end zone.

“I think we definitely could have finished the drive, gotten off the ball and at least got a first down,” Bower said of the Red Raiders’ three-and-out. “I think we could have executed a little better than we did.”

C-G coach Brad Seaburg didn’t hesitate going for two on the PAT, trailing 43-42.

“We felt confident we could get 3 yards,” Brad Seaburg said. “We felt we had some plays.”

Despite trailing all night until the end, the visitors never showed any panic or frustration. C-G had allowed only 57 points through the first six weeks of the season.

“We just stick to what we’re coached to do, what the plays are,” said Peyton Seaburg, whose night also included an 11-yard TD run.

“Everybody’s just so focused on doing what they need to do,” Boone said. “There’s no time for [panicking].”

Brad Seaburg pointed to his team’s experience.

“A lot of our guys were on the field two years ago, coming up short,” Brad Seaburg said. “Peyton was in that game, Boone was in that game, Luca Vivaldelli, Lucas Burton, Ty Drayton. When you talk about playing under pressure, they’ve been playing in these [types of] games. They’ve been here before.”

Both teams had been in this game-on-the line situation at the end.

“It was a little deja vu, for sure,” said Bower, who also rushed for 79 yards. “We all knew it was going to be a close game. If anything, I’m proud of the team.”