Prospect produces
It was a Friday night of firsts at Prospect, and two out of three ain't bad:
First win of 2011 for the host Knights.
First win for first-year coach Mike Sebestyen.
And first time back to his alma mater as a head varsity football coach for Hoffman Estates' Bill Helzer, certainly not ending in the fashion he'd have preferred.
Prospect (1-2) scored a resounding 55-7 victory in the Mid-Suburban League divisional crossover, rushing for 369 yards and touchdowns of 66 yards by Joe Gleason (6 carries, 105 yards), 64 and 29 yards by all-everything back Chris Meersman (5 carries, 111 yards) and 49 yards by backup quarterback Andreas Prince.
Prospect led all the way, took advantage of good field position provided by its defense and special teams and made big plays when needed.
"It feels great," to get that first win, said Prospect quarterback Sam Frasco (41 yards rushing, 119 passing with 2 TDs). "Our first two games, we were a little shaky."
"I thought the kids played very hard," said Sebestyen. "They have continued to grow. It's nice to get some momentum going."
Prospect was virtually unstoppable in the first half. Every time it seemed they had the Knights bottled up, Frasco and Co. came up with a big play.
After Meersman opened the game with a 92-yard kickoff return only to have it wiped out by a penalty, Prospect refused to get down.
"We said, 'OK, fine, let's go get the next play,'" Sebestyen noted.
Two ball-control possessions later, Meersman got his TD on a 29-yard bolt, bouncing off would-be tacklers.
It set the tone. The running game established, Shane Joyce went to work on the Hoffman secondary, taking in TD tosses of 9 and 12 yards from Frasco, whose 119 yards passing went mostly to Joyce and Devin O'Hara. Even after Hoffman (0-3) cut the lead on hard-working Alex Proskey's 29-yard TD off right tackle, Prospect responded with O'Hara's 91-yard kickoff return on the ensuing play.
Everything, and everyone, was working perfectly. At last.
"Our field position was awesome," Frasco said in praising the defensive and special-teams efforts, as well as the offensive line, where Austin Tixier, Colin Olson, Kevin Kern, Pat Costello and Caleb Wachsmuth keyed Prospect's ability to control the ball and keep Jordan Hudak, a pretty effective Hoffman quarterback, off the field.
After a 9-of-14 first half for 89 yards, Hudak was 0-for-7 in the second half against the aggressive play of J.D. Fischer (a pick and a fumble recovery), Danny Fiumetto, O'Hara and Luis Legeur (interception).
Penalties and turnovers again plagued a young Hoffman squad.
"Every mistake we made was game-changing," Helzer said of fumbling in his red zone, giving up O'Hara's momentum-stealing kickoff return and letting the Knights off the hook in some long-yardage situations after Alex Garcia and Don Fielder made plays that seemed to put Prospect in a hole.