Barrington looks to produce a dramatic finish

Barrington football will try to pull off a feat similar to the Minnesota Twins stunning late-season run into the baseball playoffs.

The Broncos snapped a three-game losing streak last week with a 21-14 win over Conant. They'll try to make it two in a row tonight at Palatine in their drive for five and a playoff berth.

"We're not far away from being a 4-2 team or maybe even better," said Barrington coach Joe Sanchez. "The reality is there's a reason we are where we are, but I think we're starting to turn the corner."

So did senior quarterback Terrance Terry with his best throwing game of the season.

"More than anything he was more confident," Sanchez said after Terry was 12-for-18 for 160 yards and touchdowns to Chase Murdock and Ed Tilly. "The kids made some nice catches and nice plays.

"We know we have to trow the ball enough to keep people honest. Terrance is continuing to get more and more confident as each week goes by and he did very well."

Tight end Jack Schmidt was also a big part in giving Murdock and Terry room to roam on offense. Controlling the ball the way they did against Prospect will be crucial to keep Palatine's high-powered offense under control.

"We'll be put to the test again," Sanchez said. "(The Twins) are a great example of playing ball all the way to the end and seeing what happens."

Emphatically answering the question: Buffalo Grove's biggest concern coming into this year was its offensive line.

Now the 4-2 Bison suddenly don't have enough spots for all their starters with senior Greg Sanders stepping in at center in Week 4 when Austin Simon suffered an illness.

"He has really played just outstanding," said BG coach Jim Farrell of Sanders, who can also play guard. "He was called into service and he hasn't given us any reason to not continue playing him there.

"He's the backup but he's hit every shotgun snap."

Wounded Huskies: Forgive Hersey football coach Mark Gunther if he's wondering where the black cats and broken mirrors have been the last few years.

Last week was coup de grace on the Huskies' injury front when they were missing six offensive starters in a 40-0 loss to Prospect. Starting running back Chris Polinski came back from an illness to play against Rolling Meadows but sat out last week with two-way starter Tony O'Donnell and three-year varsity offensive lineman Kevin Thomson because of concussions.

"That makes it tough to run an offense against an angry and motivated Prospect defense," Gunther said of catching the Knights after a 39-33 loss to Buffalo Grove. "Our defense holds us in tight (7-0 before halftime) but at some point the walls cave in and we can't stop the bleeding fast enough.

"It's been hard in that regard. We thought we had all the right pieces."

Then Illinois State-bound quarterback-defensive back Steve Nelson blew out his knee in June. Receiver Paul Moran has been out since Week 4 and linemen Grant Reed and Adam Wolotowsky have had to battle through injuries.

But the play of linebacker Jake Knauss, safety Tyler Beaulieu and cornerbacks Sean Bonner and John Mijal has allowed the Huskies to stay in games much longer than the final scores usually indicate.

"It's a credit to the defensive staff and scheme and the kids," Gunther said. "The system is sound, the kids are prepared and we've had a whole bunch of kids step up and give us some quality minutes and effort."

One of those players was senior Connor Rollins, who moved into a two-way role last week. Naturally, Rollins sprained an ankle and is out this week and standout lineman Dan Gregg is questionable after getting dinged in practice.

"This isn't from not having victories on the scoreboard and the kids are trying to find a way out," Gunther said. "It's legitimate."

Check out Checchin: Rolling Meadows coach Doug Millsaps had high hopes in the preseason for sophomore Artie Checchin.

Checchin came through last week with 8 catches for 66 yards and an interception as Meadows improved to 4-2 with a 12-3 win at Elk Grove.

"For some reason the way they rotated their secondary over gave us opportunities to give him the ball a lot more," Millsaps said after Checchin doubled his season total of receptions. "He's really talented. The one nice thing is we can share the wealth like that on the perimeter and Jimmy (Garoppolo) does a good job of finding those guys."

Checchin gives Garoppolo a nice group of threats with Tony Taibi, Scott Schewmon and Marius Salkauskas. Checchin is also part of a young defense which is allowing an MSL-best 1811/2 yards a game.

Stahl tactic: Elk Grove junior Eddie Stahl could probably play quarterback for a lot of high school teams. Unfortunately for Stahl, he's behind one of the Mid-Suburban League's best in classmate Nick Meyer.

But Stahl didn't sulk and he went to work on the side without the ball. Now they're on the same side in the secondary with Stahl at cornerback and Meyer at safety.

"Eddie has worked his way into a starting role," said Elk Grove coach Brian Doll. "He had a really nice game against Rolling Meadows and he's been doing better and better."

Doll was impressed with the job Stahl did on Meadows' Tony Taibi, who has emerged as one of the area's top receivers.

"It's nice having a quarterback back there who can see routes," Doll said. "And having Nick on the same side, I think they enjoy it.

"You love to see and talkabout a kid who has put all the time and effort into getting back there."

Doll also laughed about all of the unsolicited advice he's been getting this week from people at Elk Grove going into today's trip to Prospect.

"When I took the job I was excited to play against and coach against Prospect," Doll said. "I told our kids it was one of the games I marked on the calendar right away."

Carmody central figure for Fremd: One of the big reasons for Fremd's defensive success in its 15-year run of postseason appearances has been its ability to find replacements for starters lost to graduation.

This time the Vikings are doing it in-season as senior Tom Carmody has stepped into the secondary after Eric Shew broke the tip of his pinkie finger against Rolling Meadows.

"Carmody has done a nice job," said Fremd coach Mike Donatucci. "Hopefully we'll get Shew back next week and that will give us more depth."

Although senior Jayme Szafranski is the Vikings' defensive playmaker, Donatucci said there isn't anyone on that side of the ball who makes you go "Wow." But it symbolizes what has made this year's team another success story.

"It's a fun group," Donatucci said. "The chemistry of this group is very good and the selflessness is very good.

"Even with Christian (Notre Dame-bound offensive lineman Lombard) and Evan (running back Wright) and how much press they get, there are no stars. It's a good group to be around."

No Pirates' QB controversy: Palatine coach Tyler Donnelly joked there is no controversy at quarterback with junior Cody Bobbit close to returning from an injured shoulder.

Donnelly planned to give junior Jim Smearman his second straight start after he accounted for 300 yards of total offense and 5 touchdowns in last week's 42-6 win over Hoffman Estates

"Jimmy played really well and that gives us some more depth," Donnelly said. "Cody can play in certain situations and if we need to use him you might see him.

"We're happy with the way his shoulder has responded and he made a huge progression from last (Friday). But we don't need to get him in there to get him hurt."

Not that the Pirates feel as if they're hurting with Smearman at quarterback.

"We feel pretty confident with Jimmy, too," Donnelly said. "He's developing fast and I thought he did real well, especially with the weather. And he's had another good week of practice."

Getting inside linebacker Phil Brand back also helped the Pirates. Brand will be a big part of the front seven that will have to stop the run the next three weeks against Barrington, Conant and Fremd.

Defensive linemen Chad Bobbit and Tyler Jones have been providing consistent play all season.

"Tyler has really been a surprise," Donnelly said of his return from missing the final part of last season because of injury. "He's a tough kid and he's had a really nice senior year here."

Gutierrez gets the ball: It is now junior Davd Gutierrez's offense to run at Hoffman Estates.

Hoffman coach Bill Helzer said Gutierrez would "take over this week" after missing the first four weeks with a foot injury and splitting time the last two weeks with Bryan Proskey.

"It's his first time through it (running the triple option) and we talked after the first game about how fast the game is and how fast the reads are," Helzer said. "I'm happy with him. He's going to be the guy and that's going to help him mentally."

Hoffman hopes it pays off in more trips to pay dirt tonight.

"We had a good first quarter against Palatine minus one play," Helzer said. "We have to finish drives. I thought we moved the ball the first three drives and (Michael) Reeves is starting to do a nice job."

Elleson's back at controls for Christian Liberty: An ankle injury and nearly moving to Florida delayed senior quarterback Nathan Elleson's debut for Christian Liberty to last Saturday.

But Elleson finally got his chance to start and was 7-for-14 passing for 35 yards and rushed for 17 yards on 5 carries. The Chargers also didn't have any fumbles and cut their penalties to five in a 36-15 loss to North Shore Country Day.

"A lot of it has to do with Nathan coming in," said CLA coach Jim Kaulkins. "He did well. It was his first game so he was a little rusty on some of the reads.

"It would have been nicer if the kid had more playing time this year but he's getting it."

Knights honor Korcek: Retirement has allowed Mike Korcek to get back to his roots more often at Prospect. During tonight's homecoming game with Elk Grove, Korcek will receive the school's Distinguished Alumni Award.

Korcek, a 1966 Prospect graduate who retired as Northern Illinois' Sports Information Director, is scheduled to appear in four morning classes at Prospect to "offer encouragement and inspiration to current students."

Later today, Korcek and Donald Greco, the other Prospect distinguished alumni award recipient, will be acknowledged at the Homecoming Coronation Assembly in the Jean Walker Field House at 2:15 p.m. The duo will also be feted at a reception in the Community Room at 3 p.m. and then introduced at approximately 6:45 p.m. between Prospect's boys' soccer match with Conant and football game with Elk Grove.

The 61-year-old Korcek began his sports journalism career as a staff member of The Prospector, the school's student newspaper, and as a stringer for the weekly Mount Prospect News before enrolling at NIU.

At Northern, he covered the Huskies for three years on the award-winning Northern Star campus daily and then worked under the legendary Bud Nangle in the office of sports information as a senior.

After his 1970 graduation and receiving a bachelor of science degree in journalism from NIU, Korcek served three years in the U.S. Army with permanent party duty at the European Stars & Stripes daily military newspaper in Darmstadt, Germany.

He returned to the Huskie program as a full-time assistant in December, 1973, and was promoted to head sports information director upon Nangle's retirement in August, 1984. In all, Korcek served Northern Illinois for 41 years (four as a student, 34 full-time, and three as SID Emeritus).

A recipient of numerous conference, regional, and national writing and publication awards, Korcek was inducted into the media wing of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame (1999), the Northern Star Hall of Fame (2001), and the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame (2003). He was named the NIU Journalism Alumni of the Year (1998) and received the College Sports Information Directors of America Lifetime Achievement Award upon his retirement in 2006.

Dry spells hurt Cougars: Conant is having one of those "if only" years as it fell to 2-4 after a 21-14 loss at Barrington. It was its third defeat where it fell into an early hole.

"We didn't play very well and I really thought this was a chance to beat Barrington," said Conant coach Bill Modelski. "We had our chances and didn't get it done. We have no one to blame for that but ourselves."