Huntley‘s flag football players had one job to do after securing victory.

Red Raiders coach B.J. Bertelsman asked them to go to the home-side fence and sing happy birthday to his mother. His girls didn’t disappoint him.

JoAnn Bertelsman turned 71 on Tuesday, and the Red Raiders gave their coach’s mom the gift of a 27-20 win over visiting McHenry in a Fox Valley Conference game that saw the hosts stop a late drive.

“She doesn’t miss a wrestling match, and she’s not going to miss a football game,” Bertelsman, Huntley’s longtime wrestling coach, said of his mother.

Huntley defender Elena Fetzer had one job to do with McHenry facing fourth-and-goal from the 3 and looking to tie the score with the clock stopped for the two-minute warning.

Fetzer’s assignment was to keep her eyes on speedy McHenry sophomore Addison Hoffmann.

“Coach Sam was telling me to stay on (No.) 15 [Hoffmann] the entire time,” Fetzer said of Raiders assistant coach Sam Turk. “They tended to go to [Hoffmann] for running back plays, so every single time she would move, I would move with her.”

When Hoffmann took a handoff from quarterback Brooklyn Anderson, Fetzer was there to make the tackle, stopping Hoffmann for a 4-yard loss and all but officially securing victory for Huntley (3-2, 1-0), which is playing its inaugural season.

Fetzer pumped her arms enthusiastically after grabbing Hoffmann’s flag.

“I saw that [Hoffman] was back by the quarterback, and she just stayed there, and the quarterback looked at her,” Fetzer said. “As soon as I saw the quarterback look at her, I was like, ‘OK.’ ”

McHenry (3-3, 0-2), which started its final possession at its own 6, had called timeout to discuss its fourth-down call.

“It was just toss left,” Warriors coach Dennis Hutchinson said. “I don’t know if there was miscommunication, but the toss was late, and [Huntley] just came up and filled [the hole] right away.”

Fetzer, a junior, is one of several multi-sport athletes on Huntley’s roster. The 5-foot-10 track-and-field thrower qualified for the Class 3A state meet in the shot put the past two springs.

“I like physical sports, and when I heard that they were doing [flag football], I was like, ‘I want to do that,’ ” Fetzer said. “I quit soccer last year, so I wanted to get back into a [physical sport].”

Akron softball commit Aubrina Adamik scored three touchdowns, her last on a pass from Lyla Ginczycki, to give Huntley a 20-13 lead with 9:11 left in the second quarter. McHenry responded immediately, with Anderson throwing a 6-yard scoring pass to Hoffmann with 5:20 left in the first half.

Ginczycki’s 13-yard pass over the middle to Evelyn Freundt put the Raiders back in front with 34 seconds to go, and there was no scoring in the second half.

Huntley opened the third quarter with a 16-play drive that stalled when Olivia Meyer intercepted a pass at the 1 on fourth-and-goal from the 8.

“I thought they played hard,” Hutchinson said of his girls. “We got a lot to shore up defensively. A lot of those balls were in the air for awhile, so we just got to be aggressive and go get them.”

The scoreless second half was more to Bertelsman’s liking.

“I don’t like shootouts,” Bertelsman said. “They have some fast girls on their team. Maybe we see them later on in regionals, and we’ll have to adapt to what they do. But we ran our offense to a tee tonight. Even our second offense got in there and had a first down.”

Huntley’s coach is having a blast with his girls – and coaching outdoors.

“I get to keep my tan longer,” Bertelsman joked. “I’m getting my steps in every day.”