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Glenbrook North's offense takes control against Prospect

Going into Friday's game, Glenbrook North senior quarterback Kevin Burnside knew visiting Prospect would be a good test.

"We had to keep their offense off the field," he said. "Because they're the type of offense that wants to keep us off the field."

Burnside made sure he covered the field well.

He engineered touchdown drives of 80 yards (twice), 78, 58 and 17 yards while passing for a season-high 299 yards as the Spartans posted a 34-10 win over the visiting Knights in Northbrook.

"I thought Kevin threw the ball real well and our receivers did a good job getting opener," said 20-year veteran Glenbrook North football coach Bob Pieper, who was facing Prospect for only the second time and first in a regular-season game. "They made some big first-down catches."

Leading the way was TJ Weinzimmer, who caught 7 passes for 104 yards. He was one of six targets Burnside employed while going 21-for-27 and no interceptions.

The Spartans (4-0) produce a pair of interceptions, one each from Luke Amen and Alexander Bubaris, while not allowing a completed pass.

"We all just had to do our job," Bubaris said. "And we had to play a full game."

"We talked all week about playing for 48 minutes because we hadn't done that yet," Pieper said. "It was nice to see the kids play all the way to the finish."

The start was an 80-yard march, capped by junior Jimmy Karfis' 4-yard TD run with 7:34 left in the first quarter.

Three touchdowns for the hosts in the second quarter led to a 28-7 lead at the break.

Prospect's only TD of the night came with 1:54 left in the half when Andrew Shafis raced 12 yards into the end zone behind the offensive line of Alex Palczewski, Sam Lumia, Billy Matzek, Vince Shields and Brennan Keane. The run capped an 80-yard drive in which Andrew's sophomore brother Michael tore off runs of 21, 18 and 21 yards.

"I think they're (Prospect) a very good football team," Pieper said. "They are well coached and very good at what they do. They are big up front and committed to the triple option. When a team does that, you've got to change everything on defense. You've got to do your option responsibility every time. You can't worry about the other guy."

Senior Jack Pruban booted a 20-yard field goal to cut the lead to 28-10 with 7:23 left in the third quarter.

But the Spartans retained the momentum by holding the football for nearly eight minutes with a 14-play 78 yard drive capped by Karfis' third TD of the game, a 7-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter.

"They had that eight-minute drive and that ended the game," said Prospect coach Mike Sebestyen, whose team is 2-2 heading into Mid-Suburban East play on Friday when Buffalo Grove visits.

"They played well tonight and we did not. We were too inconsistent. If we want to be a successful football team, we've got to be more consistent."

Michael Shafis enjoyed his second straight week rushing for more than 100 yards (126 on 11 carries). Dante Cecala sparked the offense in the second half when he carried five times for 51 yards on the Knights' first possession which set up Pruban's field goal.

But the Spartans defense did not allow another score.

"We as coaches did not do a good enough job getting these kids prepared so we will fix that," Sebestyen said. "At this point, we are back to 0-0. These first four games were essentially warm-ups (for conference). We have to go back to the drawing board and hopefully the kids respond."

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