Huntley stays undefeated, snaps Crystal Lake Central’s 25-game FVC win streak with win

HUNTLEY – Jaci Laramie, Maizie Nickle and their Huntley teammates didn’t avoid the elephant in the room heading into their match Tuesday night.

The undefeated Red Raiders talked about the opportunity in front of them when they played Crystal Lake Central to open Fox Valley Conference play. After years of Central controlling the FVC, Huntley felt it had a chance to make a statement and take down the conference’s top team.

[ Photos: Crystal Lake Central vs. Huntley girls soccer ]

“We do think about that stuff,” said Nickle, a junior. “But that just gives us bigger motivation to come out and beat them because we want to show them that we can be in the place that they were at.”

Huntley (7-0-3, 1-0) did just that in a battle between the FVC’s top teams. The Red Raiders scored early and then turned away numerous Tigers’ scoring chances to win 1-0. The win snapped Central’s 25-match FVC winning streak dating back to 2022.

“We just brought out a lot of intensity,” said Laramie, a senior. “We knew we had to win this. We just gave everything we had, and I think we’re really happy that we won this because I feel like we’ve been beaten down a lot in the FVC. So we just really wanted to come on top.”

It didn’t seem like that was how Tuesday’s match was going to play out at the beginning. Central took control early and created early scoring chances that felt like foreshadowing for how the match would play out.

But then Huntley stole the match’s momentum in a moment. Senior Sophie Bator made a nice pass to senior Maddie Cummings near the top of the box, who shot it at junior Central goalkeeper Ryleigh Smith. The ball bounced off Smith after a nice save, but Nickle sprinted toward the ball and knocked in the rebound to make it 1-0 with 33:44 left in the first half.

“The kind of angle she was at, I expected the goalie to bobble it,” Nickle said. “So I just ran after it, and she did.”

Central kept pressuring with scoring opportunities the rest of the match. But the Red Raiders’ plan of closing down on the Tigers before they could fire a shot worked. Laramie, along with senior Evelyn Stec and sophomore Avery Suess, consciously pressured the Tigers midfield and took away strong looks at the net.

Red Raiders junior Ashlyn Grabs made six saves in net.

Huntley coach Matt Lewandowski felt his team took a big step other than beating Central on Tuesday. After tying with strong teams like Evanston, Boylan and Naperville North, Lewandowski was proud to see the Red Raiders find a way to win a tough battle.

“Just to be able to finish and score in a tight game I think is good for us because we got ties against Naperville North, who is very good, Boylan, very good, [and] Evanston, very good,” Lewandowski said. “But to find that extra little bit of work to get the goal, to put the points on the right side of the board for us, I think it’s big.”

The loss was Central’s first in the FVC since the Tigers (5-3-1, 0-1) lost to Jacobs in April 2022. That was Central’s lone FVC loss of the season.

Central coach Leah Rutkowski knew that opening FVC action against Huntley would be a tough task. The Tigers graduated a majority of their roster from last season’s team that won the Class 2A state championship and fifth straight FVC title. Rutkowski felt her young team’s experience showed.

“We’re still learning,” Rutkowski said. “We’ve got young, inexperienced players that haven’t necessarily seen this kind of Fox Valley Conference action before. So we still have things to figure out, work on. We’re just not finding the net today. It’s just not our day.”

Both team’s hope to use Tuesday’s match as a way to get ready for the rest of the season. Rutkowski felt it was a good lesson for her young team about what it takes physically and mentally to win close matches.

For the Red Raiders, it’s a confidence boost for the rest of the year.

“I think this is a good step in the right direction,” Laramie said. “We want to continue to keep doing what we’ve been doing. We’ve put in so much work in our preseason to get here, so we just want to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”