Johnsburg upsets Huntley

Huntley was looking for perfection. Johnsburg had nothing to lose. The Skyhawks dominated the front line, threw in some trickery and ended Huntley's bid for an undefeated regular season with their 17-7 victory. Johnsburg scored twice in the second half to negate a 7-7 halftime tie and held the Red Raiders (8-1, 5-1) scoreless after their first possession.

"Their defensive line did a nice job of handing it to our offensive line" Huntley coach Steve Graves said. "Their defensive line did a nice job."

After waiting through a hour long lightning delay the Red Raiders opened the game up as good as could be expected. Huntley drove 79 yards all running and Jordan Neukirch pounded in a 4-yard touchdown run with 5:39 left in the first quarter. The Red Raiders finished the first quarter with 131 yards on 21 carries. Huntley finished with just 89 yards on 33 carries for the rest of the game. Neukirch tallied 120 yards on 24 attempts with nearly half coming in the first quarter.

"We knew it would be a low scoring game" Graves said. "The ground attack was going to be important."

Huntley's ground game had other opportunities. The Red Raiders got the ball within the 5-yard line twice and could not punch it in.

On a fourth and goal from the 4 in the final minute of the first half Huntley quarterback Brandon Luczak fumbled the snap and lost 5 yards. With four minutes and two seconds left in the game and a 17 -7 deficit a halfback pass play from Neukirch never materialized and Huntley turned the ball over on downs again.

"We had two chances in the red zone," Neukirch said. "We made mistakes like letting C.J. (Fiedorowicz) throw the ball and then get loose."