PULLED DOWN: Hun School football player Jackson Barletta, right, gets stymied in a game earlier this season. Last Saturday, Hun ran into a buzz-saw as it fell 61-7 to visiting Peddie, snapping its 29-game winning streak. Hun, now 7-1, plays at Mercersburg Academy (Pa.) on November 5, needing a win to clinch a share of the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) title. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

After it was over last Saturday afternoon, the Peddie School football team exulted by jumping and screaming in unison while the Hun players knelt quietly in a circle with their heads down.

The contrast in emotions was understandable considering that Peddie had just routed the Raiders 61-7, snapping the Hun’s 29-game winning streak.

Having squandered an early lead in losing 23-14 to Hun last fall, Peddie kept the pedal to the metal in this year’s clash of rivals, scoring touchdowns on its first seven possessions as it jumped out to a stunning 54-7 halftime lead.

Hun head coach Todd Smith acknowledged that his team ran into a buzz-saw.

“It was a combination of big plays on their part and us not making big plays,” said Smith. “It got away from us early. They are a really good football team. Hats off to them.”

Peddie never looked back on the way to the triumph as Hun’s normally high-powered offense sputtered all day long with quarterback Patrick Holly hitting on 6-of-20 passes for 119 yards for a touchdown and three interceptions while star running back Josh Henderson was held to 34 yards on 10 carries.

“It is tough to get into a rhythm. I think they have probably the four best linebackers in the state of New Jersey,” said Smith, whose team dropped to 7-1.

“They come off the ball, they play great football; they did a great job of assembling a championship football team. I think when we watch the film, we are going to see early that we had [Joshua] Szott open down the field a couple of times early on. All year long we were connecting on those passes and they are going for big plays for us and today they didn’t. We picked a bad day to lay an egg on offense, that is for sure.”

The Raiders have not had many bad days since their last loss, a 34-7 defeat to Poly Prep (N.Y.) on September 27, 2014.

“Nothing that happened today takes away anything from us,” said Smith. “That winning streak was a huge collective effort from a lot of people. Our message is that we have won with class for 29 games in a row so we have to learn to lose with class today. We will lick our wounds and we will get back after it next week and see what happens.”

Smith is confident that his players will make something special happen next week in the season finale at Mercersburg Academy (Pa.) on November 5 with Hun tied for first in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) standings with Blair Academy and Peddie.

“At the end of the day if we beat Mercersburg next weekend, we are still co-champions of the MAPL this year,” said Smith. “That is because we beat Lawrenceville 49-14 on October 21 while Peddie lost 18-16 to the Big Red earlier in October. It is what it is.”