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Dramatic finish as Jarosz, Prospect edge Meadows

Senior Bobby Jarosz ran for 124 yards, but none were bigger than the 124th.

With eight seconds remaining, Jarosz crashed off right guard from the 1-yard for the winning touchdown in Prospect's dramatic 26-21 homecoming victory over Rolling Meadows on Friday night at George Gattas Stadium in Mt. Prospect.

Jarosz' third-down score capped a 16-play, 86-yard march which started with five and half minutes left in the Mid-Suburban East game.

It came immediately after Rolling Meadows (4-3, 2-1) had gained its first lead of the game when Luka Pavlakis caught a 1-yard pass from Asher O'Hara to make it 21-20 with 5:38 left.

"We just trusted in each other," said Jarosz, who did his running behind Matt Schultz, Billy Matzek, Vince Shields, Luke Wrede and Ray Beyer and tight end Sam Stolidakis. "We knew we would just keep driving and put the clock under a minute and then let our defense handle the rest."

QB Matt Drew and Co. did one better, and made sure the defense was able to call it a night.

On the ensuing kickoff, Meadow tried a lateral and eventually fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Knights senior linebacker Joe Siracusa with five seconds left.

"Joe Siracusa is playing his tail off considering he is banged up," said Knights coach Mike Sebestyen, whose team improved to 2-5 and 1-2. "At this point, he really doesn't practice much. He just comes and plays football games. He is the heartbeat of our defense. He played well. It was fun to watch. And the whole unit played well."

"That Prospect team played its heart out," said Meadows coach Matt Mishler. "They were more physical than us the majority of the time. Our kids are always going to battle but we just didn't function well in the first half."

Prospect was able to get on the board early in the second quarter when Drew capped a 50-yard drive following O'Hara's quick kick with a 1-yard sneak into the end zone.

On fourth-and-1from its own 28, Meadows was stopped and the Knights needed just two plays for to score as Jarosz raced up the middle for a 21-yard TD. and 14-0 lead with 7:58 left in the quarter.

O'Hara, who was Meadows' biggest threat all night rushing for 142 yards (many coming as an elusive scrambler), improvised 40 yards for a TD to make it 14-7 with 4:03 left in the half.

Prospect jumped back in front by two possessions (20-7) when sophomore Brandon Onori scooted up the middle for a 36-yard TD with 3:07 left in the third period.

But Meadows answered with O'Hara's 26-yard TD pass to Devonte Amos with 26.09 second left in the quarter cutting the deficit to 21-20.

Meadows' defense forced a punt in three plays, and O'Hara wasted no time driving his unit 75 yards for the go-ahead touchdown by Pavlakis.

That's when Drew proceeded to lead the Knights to their biggest drive of the season.

It included a big fourth-and-4 play when Drew pitched to Dante Cecala, who just got the new set of downs by inches at the Knights' 38.

The highlight of the drive was Drew's 37-yard strike down the sideline to classmate De'Angelo Roberson, who made a nifty grab with a defender on him at the Mustangs' 11.

"We talk about playing for the pride of the 'P' on the helmet," Sebestyen said. "I think we have the potential to be a good football team. We've lost 11 kids who at some point of the season started for us. We are playing with 11 different starters. We've been banged up and these kids have found a way to continue to fight and come through and play their tails off.

"Guys have stepped in and made plays. Obviously, they (Meadows) scored late. Tonight, we showed that the things we've struggled with all season - finishing halves, finishing drives, finishing games - that we were able to take care of them. I can't be anything but proud of how they played."

Mishler praised the Prospect effort.

"They kept getting chunks of yards on us and controlling the clock," he said. "But I am proud of our kids. We never stopped fighting. We gave everything we had. It came down to inches on fourth down. Breaks certainly didn't go out way but you can't depend on that. Prospect deserved that game. They played hard.

"Our team showed big heart tonight," Sebestyen added. "We talk about playing with ours heads, heart and guts and they played with all three.

"And we played a good football team. They're scrappy, they play hard and they don't give up. That's why this was a good football game on both sides of the ball."

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