Huntley defense hears it from Connor Boos, swamps Hampshire

Huntley’s defensive players saw the halftime scoreboard Friday night showing Hampshire without its starting quarterback trailing by only 13 points and thought something was wrong with the picture.

They corrected it in a hurry as senior defensive back Connor Boos came up with a 54-yard touchdown return of an interception to start the third quarter for a 35-15 lead, and the defense shut out Hampshire the rest of the way for a 56-15 homecoming victory over the Whip-Purs in a Fox Valley crossover.

“We went in at halftime and said we had to come out, get a turnover, get an interception, because we had let up two touchdowns and let them make it a close game,” Boos said. “We were determined to come out then and execute and did.”

Red Raiders quarterback Anthony Binetti had thrown for 295 first-half yards and touchdowns of 55 to Brandon Altergott, 16 to Josh Esikiel and 11 to Kyle Kesul, but Hampshire’s offense stayed close using a revolving quarterback system with starter Anthony Mohlman out due to a leg injury suffered last week.

The Whip-Purs (2-2) couldn’t keep up as Huntley (4-0) took control defensively with its pass rush and coverage and Binetti went on to finish 15-for-25 passing with 327 yards passing.

“We saw when we were watching film that we were going to have hitches on them, so we just took what they gave us,” Binetti said.

Altergott finished with six catches for 125 yards, including the 55-yarder in the first quarter to start the scoring.

“When they came out and played us tight (coverage) we knew we could get them,” Huntley coach John Hart said. “I understand why they did it. We were a lot bigger than they are. So they were bringing a lot of guys in the box.

“But then Esikiel and Altergott and Kesul are just really really hard to defend one-on-one, we think, and Anthony did a great job of getting them the ball.”

Hampshire, which has half the enrollment and roster size of Huntley, kept up for two quarters because receiver/backup quarterback Matthew Bridges threw for a 13-yard TD to Jake Manning, Jose Hernandez drilled a 31-yard field goal, and DaVontae Johnson broke a 30-yard TD run up the middle.

When Bridges (15-for-29, 196 yards) didn’t take the snap, Jared Lund took direct snaps in the Wildcat. But eventually the Red Raiders defense adjusted to the quarterback-by-committee and went on to get two interceptions and two fumble recoveries.

“We told our athletes before the game we’ve got to play almost a mistake-free game if we planned on coming out and winning this game,” Hampshire coach Mike Brasile said. “We made too many mistakes, but kept playing hard.”

Huntley turned it over to the running game and got TD runs of 2 and 5 yards from fullback Jacob Wick, 1 yard from Eric Mooney and 22 from Casey Haayer to lock it up with a running clock early in the fourth quarter.

Huntley now has scored 56 or more in three straight games.

“Just the chemistry between our offense is really good now,” Binetti said. “Our offensive line played great and receivers know what we’re doing.”