Meadows makes it 6-0 by beating Prospect
Rolling Meadows has been running over its opponents in its first 5 games. On Friday, the Mustangs showed they can fly as well.
Arek Kleniuk threw for 293 yards and 4 touchdowns as Rolling Meadows blew past Prospect 62-14 Friday in Rolling Meadows.
The win kept Meadows (6-0, 2-0) tied with Hersey atop the MSL East. It also clinched the Mustangs and their coach Matt Mishler their eighth consecutive playoff appearance.
Meadows had been a run first type of team early in the season.
Prospect (3-3, 0-2) stacked the box early in an attempt to slow down the area's leading rusher in Tim Szylak and his running mate Jace O'Hara and Kleniuk went to work. Meadows would finish with 572 yards of total offense.
Kleniuk, who would finish 23-of-29, drove the Mustangs down the field on their first 3 possessions to make it 21-0. Kleniuk had touchdown passes of 22 yards to Tim Szylak and 25 yards to Jordan Wiles while Szylak busted off a 17-yard run and the Mustangs were on their way.
"They were trying to stop Timmy, so the next option is me with ball," Kleniuk said. "I made my reads and we executed it."
Prospect tried to get back into the game with a couple of second-quarter touchdowns. Jimmy Martin threw to Matt Meyer for a 43-yard touchdown. After an O'Hara touchdown run for Meadows, Prospect made it 27-14 on a run by Luke Zardzin.
But it was all Meadows from there.
Kleniuk connected on a corner route to Charlie Svoboda just before the end of the half. Szylak then busted off a 66-yard touchdown early in the third quarter.
"We just focused on passing and that's ok," said Szylak, who still finished with 127 yards rushing on 11 carries.
"I thought they tried to stop our run. We saw that and took the opportunity to throw the ball. We have many options on our offense."
The Mustang defense then added to the scoring. Max Salhani, who would finish with a pair of aces, blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone.
"We ride to the ball and get all the hats to the ball," said Salhani, who along with Nate Pedraza, Dylan, Wagner, Kevin Faghir and Jose Aleman, limited Prospect to 8 yards of offense in the second half.
Kleniuk tossed a 34-yard touchdown pass to Justin Kretz and Chris DiVito tallied on a 15-yard run to close out the Mustangs' scoring.
"The kids are real unselfish here," said Mishler, who had 10 different players with receptions.
"It was a take what they will give us type of offense. Our kids just love playing and I love coaching them. They are so fun to watch."
Prospect coach Dan DeBeouf said his team was close early.
"They are a real good football team" DeBeouf said. "We battled hard with them for a while."