HUNTLEY – Six inches of snow fell in Huntley on Thursday and Friday, and the school’s groundskeepers had to shovel a lot of white stuff off the field and onto the running track surrounding the field. Temperatures fell to freezing and lower by Saturday. Game-time temperature was 40 degrees with a strong wind blowing on Saturday.
Taft kicked off, and the game itself was anticlimactic. As sometimes happens between a 7th seeded team and one seeded 26th, the contest was one-sided. Huntley put the ball on the ground and ran wild to a 42-0 lead at halftime. Junior Ryder Havens ran for a school record five touchdowns in the first two quarters, and junior quarterback Bruno Bosman threw for a 10-yard touchdown to receiver Joey Cauldren for one score, and completed a 52-yard bomb to Cauldren a few minutes later to serve up Havens’ fifth score from the Eagle 2.
With a running clock helping move things along in the second half, The Red Raiders eventually won. 48-6, led by a stout defense, an interception, and two recovered fumbles and a school-record six touchdowns scored by running back Havens.
The winner of this Raider-Eagle game will play at Chicago Marist or Glenbard East in round two of the Class 8A playoffs this weekend. The early winter weather kept the crowd dwon for this first-round game, but it didn’t quell the Red Raider’s spirits and performances for this opening post-season game. Huntley has been in the Class 8A playoffs five straight years, but has never advanced beyond the quarterfinals.
There are 33 seniors on this fall’s 73-member Huntley football roster. But the outstanding play this year of juniors Bosman and Havens bodes well for the Raiders looking ahead to the 2020 season.
