Conant hopes Cullen's ankle sprain not serious
Not much had gone wrong for Conant senior quarterback Matt Cullen this season until the second quarter of Thursday's 29-28 Mid-Suburban West loss at Barrington.
Cullen had one of his ankles rolled up on and had to leave the game with a sprain. Conant coach Bill Modelski said Friday he wasn't sure of Cullen's status for next week's game with Schaumburg.
"When I saw him (Friday) morning he said he was a lot better," Modelski said. "But until we practice and he sees the (athletic) trainers, we won't have any real status on him.
"He said (Thursday) night at halftime he wanted to go but he couldn't walk on it."
Cullen has completed 60.6 percent of his passes (83-for-137) for 1,265 yards with 14 touchdowns and only 1 interception. His favorite target, junior Tim Manczko (42 catches for 590 yards, 6 TDs) moved to quarterback and rushed for 125 yards and 3 TDs and threw for 62 yards.
"It certainly changed things but everybody goes through that stuff," Modelski said of a game Barrington won on a field goal as time ran out, "and we probably could have easily won the game despite that.
"(Manczko) was just, wow. He's a special kid."
Modelski said it's possible Cullen, who threw for 1,042 yards and 6 TDs as a junior, could play next Friday when Conant (5-2, 1-2) hosts Schaumburg (4-3, 2-1) meet in a key game for both team's playoff hopes.
If Cullen couldn't go, Modelski said Manczko would probably stay at quarterback. Modelski's son Danny is having a big year at quarterback for the sophomore team and could also be used in certain situations.
"But I don't think we want to throw him in the fire (as a starter) at this stage of the game," Bill Modelski said.
Conant also lost defensive end Laderrian Watson to a torn ACL against Barrington. Watson just returned from a broken collarbone last week.
Chasing history: Barrington's official statistics had senior Chase Murdock rushing for 313 yards on 36 carries in Thursday's 29-28 win over Conant. The single-game school record of 335 yards was set by Bryan Amis against North Chicago in 1975.
"He just ran through us," said Conant coach Bill Modelski. "We had guys in the right places and we just couldn't tackle the guy."
Murdock has 1,277 yards in his third straight 1,000-yard season. The last Barrington player to rush for 1,000 yards in three straight seasons was Dan Pohlman (1997-99).
Murdock is at 3,341 yards for his career. Andre Anderson (2004-06) holds the career mark with 4,290 and Pohlman finished with 4,145.
Anderson also holds the single-season mark of 2,131 in 2006 and Frank Shellenback rushed for 1,843 in 1974.