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One very colorful victory for Prospect

Real men wear pink.

Or sometimes are covered in it.

Prospect senior Frankie Mack was among the latter Friday night, painting his body pink to support the school's UKnight For a Cure breast cancer awareness fundraiser.

Mack and a few of his pink-clad buddies led a spirited student section that saw the Knights defeat visiting Buffalo Grove 24-15 in the Mid-Suburban East opener at George Gattas Memorial Stadium.

"All the students get involved," said Mack, "and as one of the student body leaders it's my job to go into the community and collect (donations) from the businesses. We're very fortunate that a lot of people are willing to give."

Prospect senior quarterback Andrew Shafis was the leader on the field for the home team, running for two scores and passing for another.

"As a team there were a lot of things we had to come out here and fix (after our last game) and for the most part I think we did that tonight," said Shafis.

Both teams played to their strengths in the first half. Prospect concentrated on the ground game and scored on touchdown runs of 77 and 8 yards from Shafis, while BG aired it out with a 30-yard TD pass from Connor Adams to Thomas Kelly.

Kelly's catch and run was a thing of beauty as he made the reception in a group of Prospect defenders at the 5-yard line and made a sweet cutback move to race into the end zone.

Trailing 14-7, BG was driving for the tying TD in the third quarter when Knights defensive back Dante Cecala put and end to that with a clutch interception.

Prospect then went up 21-7 when Cecala scored an offensive touchdown from his running back position on a well drawn up play where Shafis rolled right and threw back left.

Cecala rumbled in from 17 yards out.

"We were doing a lot of sprint-out stuff," said Prospect coach Mike Sebestyen. "Our guys did a good job of downfield blocking on that play."

The Knights extended the lead to 24-7 on a 54-yard field goal by Jack Pruban - a Prospect record, and the 10th longest in state history, according to the current IHSA record listings.

BG closed out the scoring late on a 47-yard TD reception by Zack Sheasby.

"Except for the Vernon Hills game we've been in every game we've played this year," said Bison coach Jeff Vlk. "We're a young team and we've got to learn how to finish plays and finish games."

Adams threw for 343 yards for BG, while Shafis, who called the breast cancer research initiative "great for the community," finished with 226 yards rushing.

"This has been going on at our school for a long time," added Prospect special education teacher Becky Boorman of the UKnight fundraiser. "A lot of people get together to make this happen, and it's a great way to come out and show how much we support the search for a cure."

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