Huntley dumps Kaneland
It was a game that figured to come down to the last play.
But for host Kaneland, that play marked its fifth turnover of the night, allowing Huntley to escape with a thrilling 17-14 nonconference victory.
When Joe Muren snared an overthrown pass as time expired for the Red Raiders' third interception against Kaneland's gunslinging quarterback, Joe Camiliere (23 of 36 for 319 yards and two touchdowns), it sealed a 2-0 start to the season for Huntley.
Huntley coach Steve Graves was relieved to see his team leave Maple Park with a victory Friday night, especially after watching Kaneland's Ryley Bailey scorch his team for 6 receptions for 121 yards and two touchdowns.
"We sure didn't have an answer for him," Graves said. "He was one of the best receivers we've stepped on the field with in a long time, that kid really had us spinning out there."
But Graves had a player making the Knights spin as well, in Red Raider junior quarterback Tim Lycos, whose impersonation of Houdini with less than a minute in the first half sparked Huntley.
With the scored tied at 7-7, Huntley marched into Kaneland territory and had the ball at the 29-yard line with about 50 seconds left in the half. On the next snap, Lycos faced a furious rush but spun away from two Kaneland tacklers and found Tor Larkin behind defenders in the end zone for a 14-7 lead with 38 seconds left.
It didn't take long for Kaneland to march nearly 70 yards, with Bailey snaring passes of 23 and 29 yards during a drive that reached the Huntley 6-yard line with 2 seconds left before halftime.
On the final play, Brett Kleckner saved the Red Raiders by tipping a sure TD pass away from Kaneland's Tyler Callaghan at the last second.
When Larkin kicked a 15-yard field goal in the third quarter for a 17-7 lead it set the stage for the Red Raiders to hang on against a furious Kaneland surge in the final quarter.
Bailey ran an 8-yard slant to grab a TD pass with 7:16 left , but Huntley's Nick Davila stopped another Kaneland drive two minutes later with an interception.
When Huntley's final drive was thwarted at the Kaneland 2-yard line, the Knights had their final shot. They made it to midfield, before Muren's game-ending interception.
Lycos opened the scoring for Huntley with a 12-yard TD scamper in the first quarter, but Kaneland answered when Bailey ran his first of many slant patterns for an 18-yard score.
"I'm really proud of our team and some things didn't go our way, but we were good enough to hang in there," Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said. "That was a very good team that we played, and we were still in it at the end, and I'm very happy about that."