Chasing Barrington not a good idea
Chase Murdock said he can’t wait until he is fully healthy and can get back to playing defense for Barrington.
“That’s where I like to play,” the senior said with a smile Friday night.
But after playing sparingly last week with an injured right hamstring, Murdock was “limited” to the offensive side of the ball in the Broncos’ Mid-Suburban League football showdown at Hersey.
The Huskies undoubtedly would have liked to see the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Murdock at linebacker. Instead, Murdock christened the new turf at Roland Goins Stadium by rushing for 248 yards and 3 touchdowns on 35 carries as the Broncos held off a tough challenge from Hersey 28-19.
And the player whose status was a game-time decision effectively finished it with a 46-yard blast to the end zone with 1:34 left after Hersey battled back from a 15-point deficit.
“He came up big,” said Barrington coach Joe Sanchez of Murdock’s running behind his big line of Dan Voltz, Ben Calamari, Josh Watkins, Mason Darrow, Jack Keeler, Akeel Abdelhaldi, Lee Conforti and Evan Lindroth and fullback Daniel Davidson.
And Murdock carried the ball just once on Barrington’s second touchdown drive of 54 yards on 14 plays. Junior Justin Dragosz (7 carries, 45 yards) and senior Austin Schmidt (7 carries, 25 yards) did most of the work to set up quarterback Mark Bennett’s 1-yard scoring plunge.
“Coach said, ‘I want to rest you up a little bit because I want you to come back in and finish the game for us,’” Murdock said. “Dragosz and Schmidt helped me out big-time.”
It showed on the first possession of the second half when Murdock carried the ball seven times on a 9-play, 60-yard drive he finished with an 11-yard score.
But Hersey, which fell to 2-1, showed it wasn’t going to go away quietly. Brad Zaucha led a 76-yard drive capped by Andrew Collins’ second 1-yard touchdown run and Jake Mueller’s 44-yard interception return energized the big home crowd.
“Our guys are battling and they’re fighters,” said second-year Hersey coach Dragan Teonic. “Every second in the game they fought.”
But Hersey lost precious minutes when a drive to the Barrington 12 ended on Hank Mitchell’s 54-yard interception return off a deflected pass. The Huskies’ next possession ended with a fumble recovered by Javier Diaz at their 42.
“We had too many mistakes on our end that I don’t think were forced — things we generally do not do,” Teonic said of Hersey’s 4 turnovers.
“The turnovers hurt us but we were still in it until the end of the game,” said Hersey senior Brian Kiss, who caught 7 passes for 55 yards.
The Huskies’ defense, which lost standout Erik Stoltzner to a knee injury on the game’s first play, stopped Barrington with 3:24 left. On the fifth consecutive completion from Zaucha (17-for-28, 200 yards), the 5-foot-6 Kiss was blasted in the end zone but hugged onto the ball for a 5-yard score that got them within 21-19 with 2:26 to play.
But an onside kick recovery and Murdock’s long run finally gave Barrington some breathing room.
“I think we’re still improving and each week we’re getting better and better,” Murdock said, “but I don’t think we’ve played our best football yet.”
And Hersey believes it will be better for hanging in there against one of the biggest teams around.
“We’re way better than last year and I feel like we can win a championship (in the MSL East),” Kiss said. “We played a good team and I feel we’re ready.”
mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com