Record-setting night ends in Huntley's favor
The numbers are mind-boggling.
Huntley and Batavia combined to score a Class 6A playoff record 133 points. They scored 19 touchdowns and combined for 1,366 yards of total offense. Huntley had two players rush for more than 245 yards and 4 touchdowns. The Red Raiders rushed for 713 yards, also a Class 6A record, and threw for just 8. Batavia had 653 yards of offense, including a Class 6A playoff-record 436 yards passing from quarterback Jordan Coffey.
The result was a 70-63 Huntley victory in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs in Huntley.
"I don't think I have ever seen or heard of anything like this before," Huntley's Jordan Neukirch said.
Neukirch scored his fourth touchdown of the game, a 13-yard run, with 40 seconds remaining to break a 63-63 tie. The senior rushed for 266 yards on 23 carries, an 11.6 average, and scored on runs of 80, 11, 11 and 13.
The fifth-seeded Red Raiders (9-1), who play at Grant in the second round, needed the late score after Batavia (6-4) scored twice in the final 5 minutes to tie the game. J.R. Kabba scored his fourth rushing, and fifth total, touchdown on a 2-yard run with 4:47 to make it 63-56. The Bulldogs recovered an onside kick and four plays later Coffey hit Tyler Lindquist for a 19-yard score to tie the game at 63-63 with 3:22 remaining.
Huntley was willing to take the clock all the way down and have Tor Larkin attempt a game-winning field goal after starting its final drive on its 14. But eight plays later Neukirch found an opening and scored.
"We were pretty much trying to score if we could," Neukirch said. "But if the clock was running down, we weren't going to be afraid to let Tor step in there."
The Bulldogs gained 7 yards on the first play of the final drive, but Huntley finally put some pressure on Coffey on the final three plays, never allowing Batavia an opportunity to threw a ball deep.
"We were hoping to have a little more time at the end to score," Bulldogs coach Mike Gaspari said. "We had a 2-point play in our back pocket. We weren't going to go into overtime."
Huntley scored on its first two possessions, on only five plays, and took a 28-14 lead with 57.5 seconds remaining in the first half. The Red Raiders recovered the ensuing kickoff on a squib kick and Neukirch scored on an 11-yard run for a 35-14 lead with 48.1 seconds left in the half.
Batavia answered with a 19-yard pass from Coffey to Kabba as the Bulldogs trailed 35-21 at halftime.
The teams combined for 4 touchdowns in the first 3:55 of the third quarter as Huntley held a 49-35 lead. The Bulldogs every second-half possession, scoring 6 touchdowns, except on the final drive. The Red Raiders scored on all five of their second-half possessions. The 70 points Huntley scored was 2 shy of the Class 6A record of 72 by Joliet Catholic in 1998.
The 133 combined points shattered the old record of 100, a 61-39 victory by Lockport over Larkin, also in 1998.
"We knew (Batavia) was good at passing, but we didn't know it was going to be that high of points," Huntley junior Brett Kleckner said.
Kleckner had 13 carries for 248 yards, a 19.1 average. Quarterback Brandon Luczek completed 1 of 2 pass attempts, but rushed for 138 yards and 2 touchdowns on 7 attempts.
Coffey went 25 of 37 for 436 yards and 4 touchdowns. Lindquist had 11 receptions for 158 yards and 2 scores. Mark Briden caught 4 passes for 97 yards. Kabba finished with 144 yards rushing and 57 yards receiving.
"Both teams left everything on the field," Gaspari said. "You can be critical of our defense, but you should be critical of theirs as well. But I prefer to look at the positive side and both offenses were tremendous."