Fulfilling victory for Barrington
Barrington is ready.
For anything. For any opponent. Bring ’em on next weekend, in the Class 8A playoffs.
Who could blame the Broncos (8-1, 4-1) for being confident after they earned a piece of their first Mid-Suburban West title in nine years and likely secured a nice seed for the playoffs as well with Friday night’s regular season-ending 41-0 win over visiting Hoffman Estates. And Barrington showed it’s ready on both sides of the ball and every aspect of the game.
“All three phases,” said quarterback Daniel Kubiuk after efficiently directing his offense with a 15-of-22 passing performance for 195 yards and 2 TDs.
When he wasn’t hitting either Matt Moran (5 catches, 75 yards, TD) or Dylan Bingham (4 catches, 51 yards, TD) for touchdowns, he was handing off to tailback Nate King, whose 16 carries for 90 tough yards included first-half touchdown runs of 1, 1 and 10 yards.
And when Kubiuk wasn’t hitting one of those guys or handing off to another, he was tossing credit where credit was due: to his offensive line and his defense overall. Brett Morrison, Zach Ingram, Jack Bornhofen, Vito Anzalone and Alex Serrano kept clearing the way for King and protecting Kubiuk.
“Our guys are doing great up front,” he said.
And then there was the defense, which kept handing Kubiuk and the offense outstanding field position.
Ryan Blair, Travis Cysewski, J.P. Brooks and David Danhauer kept Hoffman’s offense bottled up, only allowed 2 first-half first downs and had a fumble recovery in a dominant performance.
“Our defense was awesome tonight,” said Kubiuk after being handed short field after short field on which to operate.
Barrington coach Joe Sanchez saw it the same way.
“We did a great job. We had a great week of practice,” he said, hoping for another this week preceding the playoffs. But he was most proud of the team earning a share of the MSL West crown.
Barrington’s hurry-up mode had Hoffman gasping to keep up as Kubiuk spread the ball around.
“We certainly feel like we can continue to push the pace,” Sanchez said.
Hoffman Estates (2-7, 0-5), injury-plagued and battling lack of depth and inexperience, completed a campaign full of learning and improving under first-year coach Mike Donatucci in his return to head-coaching duties.
“I’m very proud of our seniors. They fought through a lot here,” he said. “We’re optimistic.
“We’re very young. Unfortunately for us, it’s next year already.”
The Hawks mounted one really solid drive to open the second half, with Dante Cleveland directing them to Barrington’s 12 with help from Kabrian Johnson and Mike Baureis. But a 10-yard loss on a sack with a 15-yard personal foul penalty tacked on took them out of scoring position.
“There wasn’t any quit. They’re doing things right,” said Donatucci.
At Barrington, meanwhile, there’s a lot of enthusiasm and excitement to prepare for the playoffs.
“We still have some stuff in the tank,” Sanchez said.