Wheaton N. keeps rolling, rocks Prospect
Prospect appeared to take a couple of big bites out of underdog Wheaton North's hopes of continuing its magical late-season run.
But a pair of long first-quarter touchdown marches didn't have the Falcons ready to just roll over Saturday night.
The 15th-seeded Falcons answered with 3 second-quarter touchdowns and were on their way to a 38-24 Class 7A second-round playoff win over No. 10 Prospect at George Gattas Stadium in Mt. Prospect.
"We're on a roll and we're going to keep on going," said Wheaton North senior right tackle Ben Blake.
"They're a great opponent," said junior quarterback Reece Butler, who took over late in the season after Ohio State-bound Taylor Graham's season-ending knee injury. "But we just had a group of 11 guys that didn't want to lose and kept fighting."
Wheaton North (7-4) went from a fight for its playoff life to a fourth straight victory and its first trip to the quarterfinals since 2002. It will be at home next weekend as it gets a chance to avenge a 35-9 loss in Week 2 to No. 11 Lake Zurich (8-3), which beat No. 3 Crystal Lake South 30-28 on Saturday.
"We felt the first couple of games we weren't playing up to our full potential," said Falcons senior defensive back Carson Rajcan, who had an interception and sack. "We've peaked at the perfect time."
Prospect (8-3) sandwiched 83- and 95-yard drives, capped by two of three touchdown runs by quarterback Miles Osei (26-for-49 passing, 339 yards; 117 yards rushing), around a 36-yard Steve Jones field goal.
"When we are down we don't get panicked," said Butler, who hit 9 of his last 10 passes to finish 12-for-16 for 148 yards.
They didn't as receiver Richard Finley (8 catches, 109 yards) wove through the defense for a 42-yard catch and score. Finley's 24-yard punt return set up Butler's 2-yard score 7:11 before halftime for a 17-14 lead.
"Their kids were a little more attacking than our kids tonight on both sides of the ball," said Prospect coach Brent Pearlman after his team gave up 37 or more points for the fourth time this season.
"I think they fed off our attitude, which wasn't very good throughout the game," Osei said. "Once we were ahead 14-3, instead of closing it out - no one was attacking out there."
John Coen tied it with a 26-yard field goal 3:20 before halftime. But Blake, Kyle Harrington, Rafe Kiely, Mike Biegalski, Jack Gibbs and Hunter Thorson led a 68-yard drive capped by Butler's 7-yard toss to Finley for a 24-17 lead.
And they came out to open the second half with a 60-yard march that ate up 6:56 as Justin Swider (19 carries, 99 yards) scored from 3 yards.
"At halftime everyone was ready to go," Blake said. "We knew we were going to crush them and we did it to them."
A Prospect drive inside the 10 ended with big plays from Montrell Williams and Clemonte Dossie and an end-zone pass breakup by John Bloss. Osei scored from 4 yards with 3:43 left but Wheaton North's onside kick recovery led to Swider's 34-yard touchdown run at 2:03.
"Down 14-3 we knew we could still play with them," Rajcan said. "We knew it wouldn't be a blowout and kept on going all four quarters."
Prospect's Peter Bonahoom had 5 catches for 119 yards but was limited to 2 rushes for 5 yards by a hip injury. John Coen had 9 catches for 91 yards and Sean Baltowski had 8 catches for 89 yards.
"That it didn't materialize (defensively) is a little frustrating, especially with the offense we have," Pearlman said. "It wasn't because of a lack of effort. These kids gave us everything they had."