After Huntley quarterback Braylon Bower threw a potential game-winning conversion pass to Jacob Witt at the end of the game Saturday, all he could do was watch.
And weep.
Witt dove for the pylon in the right front corner of the end zone, knocking it and the official closest to the play over. The initial ruling was that the conversion was no good, which would have given host Cary-Grove a one-point victory. But the officials conferred, reversed the call and Huntley had an exhilarating 29-28 victory.
“It was a roller coaster, for sure,” said Bower, whose 10-yard touchdown pass to Witt as time ran out set up the decisive conversion. “I’m like, I don’t know how that’s not good if the pylon’s hit. I was obviously crying. But then they call it [good], and the next thing I know is I’m crying happy tears, and everybody’s in a dogpile.”
Witt’s emotions were all over the place, as well.
“It was a close call,” he said. “I almost thought they weren’t going to give it to us.”
Huntley coach Mike Naymola had no hesitation going for two after the touchdown.
“We said early in the fourth quarter if we got to a situation where we’re going to kick it for a tie or go for the win, we’re gonna go for the win,” he said. “We’re on the road. At this point of the season, we have stuff to play for. But we want to give our kids the opportunity [to win], especially because we had some momentum going there.”
And the Bower-to-Witt connection has been an effective one for the Red Raiders (6-1, 6-1 Fox Valley).
Bower was 21-for-32 for 178 yards and the touchdown to Witt, who had six catches for 49 yards. Omare Segara (10 catches, 111 yards) was another frequent target. Haiden Janke was a productive option in the ground game with 25 carries for 145 yards and three touchdowns.
It all added up to just the third win in program history for Huntley over Cary-Grove.
“I would say this is the best we’ve played [because of] the competition,” Bower said. “That gave us a really good test to tell us what kind of a team we are.”
Huntley led 7-0 after a brisk first quarter on Janke’s first touchdown run but then fell behind 28-14 heading into the fourth. Janke’s third score cut the margin to 28-21 with 6:58 left, and the Red Raiders got the ball back at their 23 with 3:32 to play.
Huntley had two fourth-down conversions on the last drive, a four-yard run by Janke on fourth-and-one at the Cary-Grove 25 and an 11-yard pass from Bower to Witt on fourth-and-10 at the 21.
“That was a really physical game,” Witt said. “I’m hurting, but we got the win.”
Cary-Grove (5-2, 5-2), which did not throw a pass, is two one-point losses (the other against Prairie Ridge) away from being unbeaten.
The Trojans had touchdown runs of 13 and 57 yards by Andrew Prio, 18 yards by Peyton Seaburg and nine yards by Logan Abrams. Abrams had 105 yards on 15 carries, Prio added 63 on five runs and Seaburg had 49 on 10 carries.
“Whenever that happens, you look at yourself and say, ‘How did we let that game come down to one play?’ ” Trojans coach Brad Seaburg said. “Hats off to them to convert that fourth down, then to manage the clock and then score at the end.”
