Christian Cuellar stood up from the Huntley bench and sprinted for his goalkeeper gloves as he prepared to sub in for the team’s Fox Valley Conference boys soccer match against Dundee-Crown on Thursday.

With the Red Raiders leading 1-0 in the 23rd minute, Cuellar was forced into action after starting goalkeeper Ethan Knaus suffered an injury and was unable to return. Cuellar was ready for action, though, as he recorded his first save nearly two minutes after taking the field.

“When I saw Ethan go down, the first thing I thought was that I hoped he was OK,” Cuellar said. “It took a minute for me to lock in and get into game mode, but I made my first save two minutes in and that’s soccer. As soon as you enter the game, you have to let go of that fear. I have my boys with me and my two center backs were like a shield.”

Cuellar finished the match with seven saves and made key stops late in the second half to help the Red Raiders preserve their 1-0 shutout win over the Chargers. Although Dundee-Crown (5-2-1, 1-1 FVC) ended the match with a 5-2 advantage on corner kicks as well as the shot-on-goal advantage, Huntley (3-0-2, 1-0 FVC) contained the Charger attack with a combination of speed and physical on-ball play.

“It’s a huge win for our team,” Cuellar said. “We beat a team that was coming off a 4-0 win. What I care about most is how we bond as a team and how we build chemistry together... We’re on each other during practice and we communicate with each other. It was important for us to talk in the back and being vocal played a huge part in our win.”

After both teams battled for possession in the middle third, Huntley scored the game’s only goal during the 16th minute, capitalizing on a free kick after a foul outside the Dundee-Crown box. Senior midfielder Finley Williams took the kick for the Red Raiders, floating a pass to defender Liam Nixon, who gained position and finished the assist.

“We tried to keep as much depth as we could because they like to play over the top,” Nixon said. “We tried to stay connected as a back line to shut off those passes through the air. On free kicks, we send the ball in and I just hunt for the ball. That’s all our game plan is. I hunt it.”

Dundee-Crown midfielder Ryland Venezia had a quality chance for an equalizer in the 31st minute, but the freshman’s shot went just wide left of the Huntley goal. The Chargers owned a 4-1 advantage on corners during the first half, but the Red Raiders shut down nearly all of the Dundee-Crown runs, using body positioning to prevent Charger attackers from turning with the ball and dribbling up the field.

“Our game plan is always to keep the ball, but in games like these where we weren’t keeping the ball, our plan is to stick to our man,” Williams said. “We’ve done a lot of hard work on our conditioning so we can stay man-to-man and go high press. I thought we stuck to our playstyle of hunting the ball and trying to win everything we could.”

Huntley’s one-goal lead carried into the second half, where Hugo Arista, Sebastian Sanchez and Ayden Hernandez provided pressure on the Red Raider defense with multiple shots on goal. The game became more physical as time passed as well, with Huntley midfielder Max Connell and Dundee-Crown midfielder Jorge Pacheco each receiving yellow cards over the final 15 minutes of regulation time.

But the Chargers were unable to break through, conceding their first shutout loss of the season. Goalkeeper Manuel Hernandez totaled three saves for the Dundee-Crown defense, which navigated around shots on goal from Huntley midfielder Max Bauer in the 59th minute and forward Tyler Murray in the 76th minute to remain in the game.

“They played us hard and they showed a lot of technical ability,” Williams said. “It was a good win for us... Us showing how hard we could play and our dedication to want to win was the best outcome.”