One win at a time for Barrington
The Barrington football team made its first appearance in the Associated Press Class 8A state rankings this week, debuting at No. 10 behind Bolingbrook.
But did that matter to the Broncos as they faced host Conant in a Mid-Suburban West contest Thursday night?
Hardly. Coach Joe Sanchez and his charges didn't even know about it.
Barrington just took care of business, dispatching the feisty Cougars 42-7 to improve to 6-0 and 2-0 in the MSL West, and in the process clinch a playoff berth.
"No, I didn't have any clue," Barrington coach Joe Sanchez said about the AP ranking, "and to be honest with you, this is coach-talk, but I mean it sincerely, we're focused one week at a time. We kind of take the Seattle Seahawk mentality, the next game is the biggest game of the year, and that's all we control.
"Whatever people want to think, whatever people think we deserve to be polled, posted, whatever, that's up to them."
Barrington did well to control its destiny Thursday. The Broncos got a strong effort from senior wide receiver Scotty Miller, who caught a 73-yard touchdown pass on the second play of the game from junior quarterback Johnny Davidson on a screen play.
"We don't do that play in practice really, it's supposed to be a run up the middle," Miller said. "But Johnny goes to me, 'Make sure you bubble off of this,' and I just do it and he tossed it to me and I got a good block from Mitch Pfeiffer and I see a gap and I just go."
Added Davidson: "I saw a blitz off the edge, and I was like, 'Keep on running the bubble, it's going to be there.' It must be the fourth screen we've scored on so far."
Miller then added a 51-yard punt return with 3:19 left in the first quarter, to spot Barrington a 21-0 lead. On that fourth-and-22 play, Conant senior J.T. Levitt was punting with his heels at the end zone back line and managed to get his kick away despite a furious Barrington rush. The audible sigh of relief from the Conant crowd was cut short moments later as Miller fielded the ball on a bounce at the Broncos' 49-yard line, raced up the middle, then cut right to the Conant sideline, broke a tackle and cut back to the middle to score.
In between Miller's scoring plays, Davidson executed an 11-play, 90-yard drive that culminated in a 1-yard touchdown run from senior fullback J.T. Henderson with 4:43 left. Senior kicker Chase Lesniak kicked all three extra points, the first of seven he would boot this night.
It was more of the same in the second quarter. Barrington went 80 yards in five plays and in less than 2 minutes, with senior Matt Moran dashing the last 34 yards for a touchdown with 11:51 left in the half. Lesniak's extra point gave the Broncos a 28-0 lead.
Rushing touchdowns of 1 yard by Henderson and 9 yards by senior Dylan Abel before halftime meant a running clock in the second half, making the third and fourth quarters pretty much academic.
"It was nice tonight to be able to do this on the road," Sanchez said. "We haven't played a road game since Week 2. For us to be able to come out to someone else's field on a Thursday night on a short week, our kids did a really nice job tonight."
Conant, which fell to 2-4 overall and 0-2 in the MSL West, scored its only touchdown of the game with 23.4 seconds left in the third quarter, on a 1-yard run by junior Jake Jakubosky, who finished with 59 yards rushing on 18 attempts. The play was the culmination of a 12-play, 58-yard drive that ate up more than 6 minutes, due to the running clock.
Davidson finished with 254 yards on 12-for-15 passing for Barrington, with Miller his favorite target, hitting him four times for 98 yards.