Barrington finishes off Palatine
Even though it is just four houses away from his uncle's, Barrington quarterback Tommy FitzPatrick wasn't crazy about coming back to Palatine on Saturday.
"It wasn't terrible coming back here," said FitzPatrick, who along with his Barrington teammates, had to return to Palatine Saturday morning to complete Friday's game that was suspended by lightning early in the second quarter.
"We would have rather finished last night. We all thought we could finish last night and it put us over the edge and gave us the motivation to come out today."
Barrington, which led 14-0 when the game was suspended Friday, completed the game with a 24-7 Mid-Suburban West win over Palatine.
"It was a good game and great team effort," said FitzPatrick, who was 14-of-18 for 223 yards and threw for a touchdown on both Friday and Saturday.
"Our scout guys gave us good looks this week and got us ready for the game."
Barrington (4-1, 1-0) was able to pull away in the second half with another strong defensive effort. Led by Dayven Shinhoster, Matt Reedy, Evan Roper and Lukas Van Ness, who had 2 sacks, Barrington was able to keep Palatine out of the end zone until late in the game.
"Going into the MSL West, we know it is going to be physical," Shinhoster said. "We have it in our minds all year that it is going to be a battle each day. Everybody is ready and we have guys stepping up."
The Barrington offense also did its part with EJ Darlington catching 7 passes for 106 yards.
"Credit to this guy (FitzPatrick) for finding me when I was open," said Darlington, whose 61-yard reception in the third quarter set up a 32-yard field goal by Ramiro Vences.
"We click together very well. I love playing with this guy."
FitzPatrick put the Broncos up 24-0 when he found a wide-open Reedy right over the middle for a 7-yard touchdown pass that had Barrington coach Joe Sanchez begin to empty his bench.
"It was unfortunate that last night happened," Sanchez said. "It is a MSL West game. They (Palatine) made some adjustments and came out spirited, but we were able to keep them out."
Palatine (1-4, 0-1) did come out with something to prove. Barrington had taken that 14-0 lead on Friday thanks to a 1-yard plunge by Quinn Ketel and a 57-yard touchdown pass from FitzPatrick to Joey Gurskis.
The Pirates responded Saturday with a much more physical approach to the game. But mistakes and injuries got in the way of capitalizing on that.
A couple of missed assignments, along with a missed field goal and injuries to quarterback Joe Ayala and running back Ronald Todd, put the Pirates too far behind to come back.
They did manage a touchdown late in the game when Eric Pecson scored on an 8-yard run. It was set up by a 58-yard catch from Pecson to Luka Popovic.
"We are just making too many mistakes," Palatine coach Corey Olson said. "We lost our starting quarterback and our starting tailback and that didn't help. But we have to be more disciplined than that."