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Barrington falls short in classic shootout

Barrington's football team came up a bit short in a shootout for the ages Saturday in Chicago.

The Broncos rallied from a two-touchdown deficit in the first half, only to lose in the final seconds to Marist 59-56 in the second round of the Class 8A playoffs.

"We thought we may have done just enough at the end," said Barrington coach Joe Sanchez, whose team took a 56-52 lead with 1:08 to play on a quarterback sneak by Johnny Davidson. "But you have to tip your hat to them. They just made one more play than we did."

A long kickoff return gave Marist (7-4) the ball at the Barrington 48 with a minute to play.

The RedHawks drove the ball to the Barrington 3-yard line, where Marist quarterback Brendan Skalitzky, who was 27-of-40 for 440 yards, connected with tight end James Dunican for the winning score.

"I am proud of our kids," Sanchez said. "I am proud of how resilient they are. It could have been easy at the beginning of the game to give in. But guys stepped up and we played hard."

The game had all the feel of an Arena football game before it even began. The Marist field is squeezed into a small area, with fences just 6 yards off the sidelines.

And that feel continued throughout the game, with the teams combining for 1,207 yards and 115 points.

Skalitzky led a Marist attack that had four long scoring plays and 646 yards of offense. Skalitzky accounted for all eight of Marist's touchdowns, throwing for 6 and rushing for 2 touchdowns while gaining 188 yards.

Not to be outdone, Barrington quarterback Johnny Davidson was spectacular in his final game for the Broncos. The senior was 15-of-19 for 215 yards and 4 touchdowns. He also rushed for 106 yards and a touchdown.

"It was a great game," Davidson said. "We knew Marist was a great team. But we believed in each other. It was a dogfight and I am proud of everyone on this team."

Barrington (9-2) got a huge game from Paul Lee. The senior, who had not seen much action until recently, stepped in very nicely when running back Nate King was injured early in the game.

Lee responded by rushing for a career-best 154 yards on 16 carries and 3 touchdowns.

"Coach always emphasizes that your time will come," Lee said. "And I fully believed that. We preach the importance of practice and I work hard there, and you saw that today."

Barrington found itself in a hole early in the second quarter, trailing 28-14 with the Broncos scoring on Davidson passes to Josh Babicz and Logan Moews.

But that's when the Broncos began to run the ball to slow the game down.

With Alex Serrano, Nick Bart, Paul Toohill, John Stefan and Mark Bach pushing Marist off the ball, Lee, Davidson and Moews began to pick up yards effectively.

That also opened up the passing game even more for the Broncos.

Barrington scored just before the half on a 9-yard pass to Moews and then tied the game on its first possession of the third quarter on 24-yard pass to Babicz.

The scoreboard then went crazy as each team scored 2 touchdowns in a span of 2:40.

Lee had TD runs of 7 and 41 yards while Skalitzky threw a 79-yard pass and ran 65 yards for another score tie the game at 42.

Lee put the Broncos up 49-42 early in the fourth quarter on a 15-yard run but Marist drove for a tying score with 7:40 to play.

After a Barrington turnover, Marist kicked a 24-yard field goal with 4:35 to play to lead 52-49.

The Broncos moved the ball downfield. After they had a touchdown called back on an offensive pass interference call, the Broncos faced fourth and 24.

Davidson then threw to Jake Zyzda, who caught the ball with two Marist defenders draped over him for a 33-yard gain.

That set up Davidson's score with 1:08 left to give Barrington its final lead 56-52. But the Marist offense was just a bit too much for the Broncos on this night.

"It was a classic match where two teams were fighting for survival," Sanchez said. "We just came up short."

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