Barrington pulls away from Conant to finish regular season at 9-0
After beating Palatine at home to secure the Mid-Suburban West automatic berth to the state playoffs a week ago, Barrington coach Joe Sanchez spoke of his football team that has grown from boys to men in front of his own eyes.
It has been a Broncos unit that has constructed a foundation strong enough to withstand some very difficult obstacles which have included ...
• The sudden passing of a parent of one of the players on their varsity roster on the morning of their annual Saturday afternoon homecoming game four weeks ago vs. Fremd.
• The absence of offensive line coach Steve Galovich who has been beset by a set of health issues.
"So proud of our kids. We've been having a lot of things we've had to deal with (this season) so obviously (there's) been a lot of heavy hearts," Sanchez said. "To be able to do that with everything (that's gone on) has been pretty special. (It's) guys just stepping up and (I'm) just proud of them."
Their performance in a 45-19 win at Conant Friday gave him more of a reason to be proud. With the win, the Broncos (9-0, 5-0) swept through MSL West play in earning the program's 13th MSL divisional title since joining the league in 1978.
In addition it completed their 10th undefeated regular season in school history, their first since the 2021 spring season when it went 6-0.
Barrington awaits its postseason assignment Saturday night for its 27th trip to the playoffs.
"We're all about (overcoming) the challenges of adversity as a group," Barrington senior RB Dillon Fitzpatrick said. "As a group we're (about) one big family and we weren't going to come (into) this game thinking we were going to lose. We're thinking we were going to win every game we play and (overcoming) the adversity we face (which) makes us stronger."
In order to procure that ninth win, Barrington had to work its way from a prideful, pesky Conant squad that was playing like it had nothing to lose. It had taken the lead for the second time in the first half on a 3-yard Cooper Hanson TD run that gave them a 12-7 lead with 8:11 left in the second.
It was from there the visitors took control. The second of Broncos QB Nick Peipert's 4 TD passes found its way to Matt Marusich (40 yards), and a Will Nazha two-point conversion pass found its target in TE Ian Tepas that gave them a 15-12 advantage with 5:41 remaining in the opening half.
Fitzpatrick (19 carries, 198 yards) added the first of his three touchdowns with a 6-yard TD run with 41 ticks left before the break to put Barrington up 22-12.
After Nazha caught a 55-yard scoring pass from Peipert (5-12 for 181 yards), Fitzpatrick snared his second score on a 32-yard pass followed by his second TD jaunt from 5 yards out to give Barrington a 45-12 lead entering the fourth.
Conant (3-6, 1-4) got a pair of TD passes from QB Matt Maize (22-36, 263 yards) to Bradley Biedke (34 yards) in the first and Lennon Johnson (8 yards) in the final frame as he along with Johnson and 24 other seniors took to the Feutz Field turf for the final time.