Huntley marches past Rams

Hours after being one of the attractions in the homecoming parade through town, the Grayslake Central football team was among the spectators for another.

And this one took place on its own turf.

On Saturday afternoon, visiting Huntley became the main attraction as a steady stream of Red Raiders paraded into the end zone early and often.

The show got off to a quick start as running back Tanner Stearns took the very first play from scrimmage and sprinted 65 yards to give Huntley a touchdown just 12 seconds into the game.

Huntley wound up steamrolling to a 44-6 victory that kept its record perfect (6-0, 2-0 Fox Valley Fox) and spoiled the Rams' homecoming.

The Red Raiders, who racked up 408 rushing yards, also stayed atop the Fox Division standings and qualified for the playoffs at the first opportunity - and for the first time since the 2001 team finished 10-3.

Grayslake Central, meanwhile, dropped to 0-6 (0-2 Fox Valley Fox), and is still in search of its first victory since 2006.

"It set the tone right away," Stearns said of his quick touchdown. "We tried to not let up the whole game."

Stearns continued to do his part.

At the beginning of the second quarter, he reeled off another monster touchdown run that was similar to his first - a 52-yarder that gave the Red Raiders a 14-0 lead. Stearns finished with a game-high 189 yards on just 8 carries.

Four minutes later, teammate Jordan Neukirch (13 carries, 141 yards) got in on the action when he exploded for a 35-yard touchdown run to put Huntley up 22-0 with 8:33 left in the half.

"It's tough to come out and have that happen," Grayslake Central quarterback Kevin O'Rourke said. "We have to work on getting our heads in the game from the go and not get down right away."

Grayslake Central coach Nick Goshe thinks his players might have still been back at the first parade, the one where they were the stars.

"We want to be in the parade because we want to support that kind of thing, but I think that with everything else that went on this morning, our kids weren't ready for the game," Goshe said. "I think (Huntley) caught us napping early on, especially on that first play. They caught us off guard."

The Red Raiders piled on another second quarter touchdown when David Conrad ran in a touchdown from 13 yards out with just 49.7 seconds left. They would have trotted off to the locker room with a 30-0 lead had Grayslake Central not kept plugging away. With no time on the clock, O'Rourke heaved a Hail Mary toward the end zone and Justin Squillo came down with it to make the halftime score 30-6.

"Justin and I work well together," O'Rourke said. "He's a great kid. He works hard."

O'Rourke completed 11 of 25 passes for 158 yards. Squillo was on the receiving end of nine of those passes for 135 yards.

"They've been working well all year," Goshe said of O'Rourke and Squillo. "Justin's a phenomenal route runner. He works really hard to get open and Kevin's got a nice arm and he's going to get it there.

"There are bright spots like that for us. We can move the ball. It's not like we have no shining moments."

Huntley had two more shining moments in the second half when Neukirch scored another touchdown - on a 43-yard run - and Jose Montenegro ran in a touchdown from 3 yards out.

"We expect big things out of our running game and we're getting it," Huntley coach Steve Graves said. "A lot of eyes are focused on Jordan (Neukirch) and a lot of misdirection off Jordan means big yards for the other backs and Stearns had a real big day today."