(Photo by Bill Allen/NJ SportAction) BRIAN’S SONG: Hun School junior star Brian Leffler breaks through the line in a game earlier this fall. Last Saturday, Leffler rushed for 26 yards and a touchdown as Hun drubbed Worcester Academy 46-6 in its season finale. The win gave Hun a final record of 9-0.

Hun Football Dismantles Worcester 46-6 to Put Finishing Touch on Perfect Season

Bill Alden

As Dave Dudeck tried to enjoy some down time this summer, thoughts about the prospects of his Hun School football team clouded his vacation.

“I was sitting on the beach this August and I was concerned,” said Hun head coach Dudeck. “I was thinking that we were real young; I didn’t know how we were going to do. I was worried.”

This past Saturday, any lingering doubts that Dudeck may have had about his 2007 squad were erased as Hun put the finishing touches on a perfect fall with a 46-6 rout of Worcester Academy.

The win left the Raiders with a 9-0 record, the program’s first perfect season since 1991.

In achieving perfection, Hun used the blueprint that has served it so well, jumping off to a 30-0 halftime lead as it cruised to victory.

“We have only given up 16 points in the first half all year,” said Dudeck, whose team outscored foes 191-16 in the first half this season and 309-78 overall.

“I give credit to the kids for coming and being ready to play and being emotionally ready for the game.”

Emotions were running high for Hun both before and during the game Saturday. “We have a special tradition at Hun called the ‘burning of the shoe,” said Dudeck.

“After the last practice before the final game, we have the younger guys gather around a spot on the track in their street clothes. Bill Quirk lights some old spikes with kerosene and the seniors walk down the field and stand in a circle talking about the program and what is has meant to them. The emotion is incredible. During the second half of the Worcester game, the emotions were running wild. Kids were laughing, crying, and hugging, There is a lot of love on this team.”

The concern for teammates was exemplified by senior star running back Kenny Howard as he got Dudeck to pull him out of the game in the second half on Saturday.

“We had a goal to have Kenny gain 1,000 yards this fall,” said Dudeck of Howard, who rushed for 153 yards and a touchdown in the win over Worcester.

“In the third quarter, when we were building our lead, I didn’t want to keep the starters in there and keep pounding them. Kenny was about 50 yards short of 1,000 but he came to me and said ‘it’s OK, put the younger kids in there.’ The attitude of the players is to put the team first and themselves last.”

The players’ confidence in what they could accomplish together was never more evident than in the season’s closest call when Hun trailed Valley Forge 18-14 late in the fourth quarter in an October 27 contest.

“We called a time out before we got the ball the last time,” recalled Dudeck, whose team proceeded to March for the winning touchdown in a 21-18 triumph.

“The players came over and they were saying ‘we’re winning this game.’ They believed in themselves. As a coach, that means you just have to steer the ship; you don’t have to worry about instilling that attitude.”

The Raiders certainly had an attitude on defense as they posted two shutouts on the year and never gave up more points than the 18 they yielded in the Valley Forge game.

“The defense played great all year,” said Dudeck. “We gave teams a lot of different looks. We ran to the ball and tackled hard.”

The team’s group of seniors and post-graduates set the positive tone for the team.

“We had 18 seniors and many of them were role players,” said Dudeck. “Their legacy is the concept of ‘team.’ They came and practiced hard everyday and that helped everybody get better.”

That spirit trickled down through the whole squad. “Never once did the players point fingers at each other,” said Dudeck.

“When a player made a mistake, the others were supportive. They never questioned the coaches, there was no whining about playing time. They did whatever we asked them to do and they earned this.”

In the end, the Raiders taught Dudeck a lesson in the value of teamwork. “We accomplished more this fall with less talent,” asserted Dudeck.

“You don’t have to have a lot of Division I talent if the kids play together and are a team. We had some talent, sure, but it was our bond and love as a team that made us undefeated.”

And Dudeck was glad to get caught up in that tide even if he never imagined it as he looked out at the ocean last August.

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