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Prospect extends back-on-track trend against Buffalo Grove

At Prospect, it's starting to feel like old times.

The Knights, young, inexperienced and injury-plagued, battled through all that Friday night. And for the second week in a row, Prospect put a damper on an opponent's prospective playoff hopes with a 24-14 win over visiting Buffalo Grove.

Buffalo Grove must beat Wheeling next week and get some playoff points help from teams it has beaten in order to appear in the postseason.

Prospect, (2-6 and 2-2 in the Mid-Suburban East) has relished the spoiler role, having put a similar dent into Wheeling last week. The Knights have rebounded from a difficult start to put a rewarding and redeeming stamp on a season that features many returnees for next 2015.

"We've learned; we've gotten better," said Prospect coach Mike Sebestyen after his team ran the ball for 204 yards through a normally rugged BG defense, relying on the strength of backs Bobby Jarosz (19 carries, 103 yards) and sophomore Andrew Shafis (16 carries, 74 yards).

In fact, the Knights have three starters back next year - juniors Matt Schultz and Luke Wrede and sophomore Billy Matzek - from an offensive line really finding itself.

Its calling card Friday night was a 13-play drive in 8:21 that iced the game, concluding with junior quarterback Matt Drew's 10-yard touchdown dart on a broken play.

Drew connected on third-down passes of 11 yards to Tito De Los Santos and 8 yards to Mike O'Malley for first downs and a fourth-down, 16-yarder to De Los Santos to keep the clock-killing drive alive.

Prior to that, Drew scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak and Jarosz scored from the same distance as the Knights dominated the line of scrimmage and the clock.

For Drew and teammates, it's all very rewarding.

"At the beginning of the season, thing weren't going right," he noted.

Now, nothing is going wrong.

"We just want to keep the momentum going and stay confident," he said.

BG would like to find some.

The Bison got a thunderbolt of a TD run from John Maddox, who turned defensive backs out of their shoes and then outran them for a 79-yard score to cut the lead to 17-14.

But BG couldn't convert after recovering the ensuing onside kickoff, and Prospect killed the clock.

"They were flat-out better," BG coach Mike DeMatteo said of the Knights. "Now, we've got to win next week and get help from Leyden and Schaumburg, among others, to make the playoffs,"

The Bison hope to state their case against Wheeling next week. The Knights, meanwhile, will hope to take a three-game winning streak into 2015.

"We've been one play, two plays away in some games," Sebestyen reflected on the season.

Now he hopes they've learned how to narrow that gap.

"Tonight was a team effort, a team win," he said.

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