By Justin Feil

The Hun School football team will put its two-year unbeaten streak on the line when it kicks off the 2023 season at high noon on September 9 by hosting Mastery High School of Camden.

The Raiders will take to the field after graduating three-year starting quarterback Marco Lainez III, now a freshman at Iowa, as well as most of their offensive line — Zach Aamland (Illinois), Logan Howland (Oklahoma), Brian Ingram (Williams), and Cole Morgan (Michigan). Hun, though, remains optimistic that its depth and some new additions are enough to continue its winning ways. Hun looked good in a preseason scrimmage on Friday against Brunswick School.

“The good thing was the kids were playing together as a unit,” said Hun head coach Todd Smith, whose squad went 9-0 in 2022 to give the program 18 straight victories. “We saw some good things, and some things we still need to work on. We had some tired legs, some tired kids, which is to be expected because we just broke camp. All in all, it was a good showing and we’re headed in the right direction.”

The biggest question mark is how to rebuild the offensive line around returning starter Kole Briehler, a junior captain and all-everything lineman with offers from the likes of Michigan, Oklahoma, and USC, and James Muller, who played heavy minutes last year in a rotation and has drawn interest from the Ivy League and above at the next level. The offensive line has been a focal point of Hun’s preseason.

“I feel really good about it,” said Smith. “The kids are talented, they’re strong, they want to be great, they want to come off the ball. And we have the luxury of having some really good skill guys at wide receiver, tight end and running back where if we do make a mistake those guys can make up for it on the other end.”

Hun has the luxury of boasting two outstanding quarterbacks to fill Lainez’s shoes. Miles O’Neill is a senior newcomer to Hun and is committed to Texas A&M. Jack Moran is in his third year with the program, and the junior already has offers from Maryland and UConn. O’Neill has an edge in athleticism and experience, but both pro-style quarterbacks fit Hun’s offense well and are expected to play.

“I think everyone is going to see time for sure,” said Smith. “At the end of the day, everyone deserves to play and we’ll do our best to make that happen. It’s the same thing we’ve been doing at other position groups since I’ve been here — whether it’s wide receiver, tight end, or running back. We’ve always had a lot of those good guys and found ways to get them in. They work well with each other, they work off each other very well, they push each other at practice in a healthy way.”

The quarterbacks will be getting the ball to an experienced group of skill players. Wide receivers Liam Thorpe (junior with a Rutgers offer), Bryce Kania (junior with a Syracuse offer), and Christian Soltis (junior with a Penn offer), all return and the Raiders have added postgraduate AJ Schwartz, who will also play defensive back. The tight end corps is deep with Drae Tyme converting over from quarterback to join seniors Dom DeLuca (Temple offer) and Markus Brown (Penn offer).

“Those guys are doing great,” said Smith. “Everyone is doing a great job of managing their portion of the offense and what they have to do. It’s just a matter of continuing to get better every week and really mastering our craft here.”

In the backfield, Hun is led by junior Kamar Archie. Archie, who is also an outstanding linebacker, has offers from the top programs in the country, including Alabama, Georgia, and Clemson. Chase Enlow, a new sophomore in the program, will also carry the ball a lot for the Raiders as well as another new sophomore, Luke Wafle, the younger brother of Michigan defensive lineman commit Owen Wafle. There will be increased opportunities for the skill players after the graduation loss of Dante Barone (Penn).

“We replaced Dante with a bunch of people,” said Smith. “He was one of the most versatile people we’ve ever coached. We can’t just go pluck a kid and say we’re going to make him Dante, but we do have kids that can do all the different things Dante did. It’s a matter of putting them in the right formations.”

While the offense was elite last fall, averaging more than 45 points per game, the defense was perhaps even more dominant. They allowed barely eight points per game a year ago, and return mostly intact with just defensive ends Howland and Barone graduating.

“Owen Wafle and Kole Briehler return at defensive tackle — two of the premier defensive tackles in the country,” said Smith. “That’s the core of what we do and they have Kamar standing right behind them which is awesome. To have those three in the middle of your defense really sets the tone every game.”

Wafle will head to Michigan next year while Briehler and Archie still have another scholastic season after this year. Outside of Wafle and Briehler, Hun will insert Luke Wafle and Billy O’Byrne, a postgrad from Shawnee to fill the defensive end voids. Griffin Galletta, the younger brother of a Hun starter last year, Logan Galletta (Boston College), is capable of playing any spot on the defensive line. Luke Sutphen (Army commit) joins Archie in the linebacker crew. In the secondary, Thorpe, Kania, and Dillon Bucchere return, as well as Soltis. All four of Hun’s team captains this year will be on the first defensive unit with Archie, Briehler, Bucchere, and Owen Wafle.

“It’s great. Kamar has stepped up and become a real vocal leader this year,” said Smith. “Last year, he took a back seat to some of our older kids and that’s great. We’re feeding off his energy. Kole is just a warrior on both sides of the ball. Owen is our classic big play maker on defense. He’s almost impossible to block and I think a lot of people look up to him for how he carries himself on both sides of the ball. And then Dillon has been our guy. He stepped on the field I think the third play of his sophomore year and hasn’t come off. He shows everybody how it’s supposed to be done. They’ve had the luxury of seeing how kids did it before them and they’ve picked up right where they left off.”

Hun will be tested in the first half of its schedule. After Mastery, Hun will host Avon Old Farm School (Conn.) and St. Thomas More School (Conn.) in back-to-back weekends and then travel to Malvern Prep (Pa.). The Raiders have struggled to find teams to play them because of their talent, and they aren’t in the New England league that they played in for the last couple of years.

“That’s a really tough three in a row,” said Smith. “Each brings a different element of things we have to deal with. Avon Old Farm is good. St. Thomas More has a lot more postgrads than we’re used to playing and they don’t really play a high school schedule. We’ll deal with that when it comes. Malvern is a perennial really strong program out there in the Inter-Ac. We’re excited about that and the challenges in front of us.”

Those challenges ahead as well as the unified goal of playing the highest level of football possible have brought this year’s group of Raider players together. Smith has been pleased with the team’s quick camaraderie.

“They have each other’s backs and they’ve made some really great strong bonds and friendships in a very short period of time,” said Smith. “A lot of the new guys have been coming down all summer. They stayed locally with some of our local guys and they just got great work in all summer. So it’s not like they met each other for the first day of preseason. They really forged relationships and bonds throughout the summer. We’ve really just kept getting better and better as camp has progressed.”

That attitude is important on a team with a roster loaded with talent. Not everyone can play at once, and keeping all that talent happy could be a chore.

“The program has earned a reputation of doing it the right way and putting out great kids,” said Smith. “We have kids that are willing to wait their turn. I think a great example of that would be Luke Sutphen, who will be a two-year starter at linebacker for us. He’s one of the leaders on our team and one of the best players on our team, and he didn’t start until last year as a junior. And he would have started at any other program in the area, but he waited his turn and he worked really hard and he earned a bunch of scholarship offers. He’s going to head off to Army next year and play football for them.”

When players adopt that thinking at Hun it allows them to focus on the football. The Raiders have sky-high goals again. They haven’t lost a game since October 31, 2020, when Malvern Prep edged them 10-8. After making some key replacements, Hun is aiming for a third straight unbeaten season.

“The O-line has to come together and play really physical football just like we’ve been known to do for the past four or five years,” said Smith. “And step two, we have to protect the football and not turn it over. And step three is know alignment and assignment on defense and really set our playmakers loose and play good, sound fundamental football.”