Strong start for Prospect leads to first win
Prospect football coach Mike Sebestyen still wants to see his team finish better.
But with a fast start out of the gate on offense and wire-to-wire solid defense, the Knights posted their first win on Friday night with a 23-0 shutout over Niles West in Skokie.
The Knights scored twice in the opening quarter, the first on a 1-yard touchdown run by junior Michael Shafis.
Less than three minutes later, following a fumbled snap on a punt attempt which gave Prospect the ball at the Wolves' 21, it was an 11-yard TD dash up the middle by sophomore Jonathan Friedrichs that gave the Knights a 14-0 lead with 3:30 left.
"A good strong start is everything, it's huge," said Knights junior quarterback Jimmy Martin, whose 15-yard run on Prospect's first offensive play sparked the 48-yard drive capped by Shafis' TD. "We really moved the ball a lot better this game and the defense was just fantastic. We could not have asked any more from them.
"They sealed the deal at the end (with a safety with 4:24 left in the game), and I can't say how proud I am of them."
The Knights jumped ahead 21-0 in the second quarter when the defense forced Niles West to punt deep in its own territory.
Prospect (1-2) ended up with the ball on the Wolves' 35-yard line and Martin needed just one play to get his team into the end zone.
Getting strong protection from senior Jack Heiss, junior Mitch Kamp, senior Ty Lussow, sophomore Sebastian Swistak, junior Andrew Tertel and senior Brennan Keane, Martin fired a 35-yard sideline TD strike to sophomore Matt Meyer with 9:55 left in the first half.
Anthony Santangelo's third extra point made it 21-0.
"Their quarterback is a good player," said Wolves coach Jesse Pierce, whose team is 0-3. "He's a hard-nosed kid and I think all night long they kept battling. They get in behind those big guys in front and they just move the pile and keep running. They play a hard game."
No one plays harder than Keane, who also helped spark the Knights' defense from his linebacker position.
"I thought our defense played its tail off," Sebestyen said. "We have an undersized line but they play hard, and we are led by our linebackers (Keane, Shafis, Michael Cima, Lussow and Adam Mekky). I thought our defensive backs did a nice job. Everyone flew to the ball and Brennan (Keane) played his tail off as usual."
Keane and company played hard to the end, registering a safety in the final minutes which allowed the Knights to run out the clock on their final possession with backup QB Zachary Zei getting a chance to run the ball five times for 40 yards.
"You've got to be proud of a defensive shutout," Sebestyen said. "That's what Prospect football has always been about - defense first. So we're really happy and excited about that."
Keane said the TD drive on the Knight's first possession had a big impact.
"Starting out with that first touchdown on our first drive really gets our confidence up," he said. "We have an inexperienced offensive line. But we're starting to get games under our belts now. And we're starting to see that experience come together on some outside run plays. I think we really played."
"This game is going to pick our team up this week," he added. "We're going to build off this. We've got to learn to keep the offense up in the second half but we know our defense is always going to play hard. We just have to be more consistent on offense."
The defense held Niles West to 44 yards passing and 135 rushing.
"Coach (Brock) Collins (defensive coordinator) did a fantastic job," Sebestyen said. "He did a great job to get these kids prepared. Our defense has played very hard for three weeks. We bent a little but always continued to keep playing and always found the big play to finish off a series.
"We just have to be able to finish a drive in the second half which we didn't do. Our offense has to continue to grow and come along. And if we can continue to do that like we have the last two weeks, we might be able to put a decent football team together."