Barrington outduels Prospect
Barrington linebacker Colin Castagna had no problem astutely summing up the Broncos’ second win of season, a 27-14 come-from-behind victory at Prospect on Friday night.
“It’s all about finishing,” said the 6-foot-4, 230-pound senior.
Castagna also had no problems finishing plays, a lot of them in the Knights’ backfield.
He and junior lineman Ryan Blair each had multiple sacks in the fourth quarter when the Broncos’ defense stopped the Knights six times for negative yards.
Meanwhile, the Broncos were able to erase a 14-12 deficit in the final ten minutes with a 2-yard TD run by Dumaso Mkwananzi and a 1-yard score by Dylan Abel with 6:59 left.
“Everything just got into a flow and we left everything we had out there,” Castagna said. “It was really just doing our jobs and being fundamentally sound with everyone in the right position.”
The Knights (0-2) were in a good position when junior quarterback Greg Suarez engineered a 70-yard drive capped by his 3-yard TD run that gave Prospect a 14-12 lead with 2:13 left in the third quarter.
But then Barrington return whiz Scotty Miller went to work.
In the final 15 minutes of the game, he rattled off a 45-yard kickoff return and 40- and 35-yard punt returns which helped sway the momentum to the visitors.
“Scotty is a special kid,” said Barrington coach Joe Sanchez. “Obviously everyone knows about him in our conference and you saw what he can do tonight. He gave us some huge field position which was a big lift.”
Providing a big lift to Barrington’s second-half offense were linemen Vito Anzalone, Brett Morrison, Zach Ingram, Alex Serrano and Anthony Meads along with tight ends Ryan Cowdrey and Michael Nannini, who had a big 30-yard reception in the final period.
On Barrington’s first possession in the fourth quarter, quarterback Daniel Kubiuk (13-of-21, 144 yards) engineered a 66-yard scoring drive, capped by Mkwananzi’s 2-yard run with 9:29 left in the game. Mike Carbonara’s 2-point run gave the Broncos a 20-14 lead.
Miller’s 36-yard punt return led to Abel’s final TD for the 27-14 lead.
Prospect (0-2) kept battling to the end as senior Max Driscoll made back-to-back catches in the final minutes to get the Knights near midfield.
“I’m not going to lie,” Driscoll said. “Barrington has a big squad and obviously we were undersized. But we never lost our fight. It was great to see Greg (Suarez, backup QB) out there fighting to the end. When all was said and done, I thought we played our guts out.”
Suarez replaced starter Matt Drew early in the second quarter.
“Matt just had a little bit of a stinger in the upper body,” said Knights coach Mike Sebestyen. “Greg did a nice job coming in. He got enough reps during the week to be prepared. I thought he did nice job setting himself up.”
Suarez’s 22-yard pass to Jon Slupski gave the Knights a 7-6 lead at intermission.
“I am very proud of how the kids played,” Sebestyen added. “They fought for 40 minutes. It’s always fun to see how much you grow from week one to week two. I told them they had to grow and they did. The defense played its heart out.”
Sanchez was impressed by the Knights, too.
“Give credit to Prospect,” he said. “They have a lot of pride and tradition in that program and we knew their score against Glenbrook South was not indicative of their team.”
Sanchez said his offense struggled to get into a rhythm in the first half.
“But I was very proud of my offensive staff in the second half,” he added. “We had that big drive to start the fourth quarter and Scotty (Miller) really gave us momentum.
“Colin (Castagna) was all over the place for the second week in a row. When he plays the way we think he can, he is an outstanding performer. Those six negative-yardage plays in the fourth quarter were a testament to the defense and its dedication.”