Dorsey, 'Dogs pass up Huntley
Better late than never.
After a one-day postponement due to generally wet conditions, Huntley and Wauconda got the 2007 football season underway.
With Garrett Dorsey throwing 2 touchdown passes, Brad Wisniewski running for 141 yards and a score, and Keith Wilson adding a pair of field goals, the Bulldogs downed the Red Raiders 27-13 on a beautiful Saturday night in Huntley.
Huntley's Casey Popenfoose completed 12 of 27 passes for 128 yards but was plagued by dropped passes. He was also Huntley's leading rusher with 79 yards and a touchdown.
Wauconda iced the game thanks to a fortuitous deflection. With the Bulldogs leading 20-13, Dorsey's pass on third-and-24 was deflected by Huntley's Brett DePorter into the hands of Jimmy Williams, who made a diving grab in the end zone for the game's final score.
In the first half, Huntley put 8 men in the box and dared Dorsey to beat them. The junior answered the challenge, completing 5 of 7 passes before intermission for 113 yards and a touchdown to Davis Mills.
"We just made some plays and they didn't," said Wauconda coach Glen Kozlowski. "We like to run the ball. We really, genuinely, don't like to throw, but that's what they forced us to do."
Even after the season officially kicked off, there was something of a feeling-out period. The Bulldogs moved inside the Huntley 5-yard line twice but came away with only a pair of Wilson field goals.
Wauconda finally got to the end zone when Dorsey found Mills wide open in the middle of the field for a 42-yard score.
Huntley got it right back, with Popenfoose marching the Raiders 77 yards in 8 plays. Jordan Neukirch raced in from 4 yards out to make it 12-6 just before halftime.
The Bulldogs extended their lead on the first play of the fourth quarter, when Wisniewski, who had 114 yards in the second half, bulled in from 4 yards out.
Huntley got it back on Popenfoose's 2-yard run.
"Wauconda's a good team, and we weren't going to get away with winning the game without playing our best football," said Huntley coach Steve Graves. "We didn't do that tonight."