Prospect storms back to beat Buffalo Grove, remain unbeaten on the season

Next weekend, Prospect will entertain Hersey with the Mid-Suburban East football title at stake.

Before that for Dan DeBoeuf's Knights was a trip up to Buffalo Grove on Friday night to face a much-improved Bison squad that remained alive in the MSL East chase. Prospect is 8-0, 4-0 in the East.

Prospect ran into signs of that improvement and had to rally from a 14-0 deficit before digging their way out for a 49-14 victory.

“I give Buffalo Grove a tip of the cap for sure,” DeBoeuf said.

“I thought that they really had a good plan. Their kids really came out (playing) hard. When it came to us, I am happy we saw a little bit of adversity. It's been a little bit since we've had to face this team and I was really happy with our response.”

The Bison (5-3, 2-2) broke out to a 14-0 lead thanks to finding the end zone on their first two possessions.

The hosts showed off a drive that combined direct snaps and quick handoffs to senior ball carrier Matthew Kaput (31 carries, 205 yards) that culminated in a nine-yard scoring jaunt just 27 seconds into the second quarter, making it a 14-0 Bison advantage.

From that point on, Prospect scored on all three second-quarter possessions as Jackson Cacini connected with Gordon Kemp on a fourth and goal from the BG 14 to cut the deficit to 14-7.

Then Cacini took the ball and capped off Prospect's next two drives with TD jaunts of three and six yards, with the latter coming with 25 seconds left until halftime, giving them their first lead at 20-14.

The second half saw the Knights begin to overpower the Bison as they found the end zone on all four of their possessions.

Cacini (18-of-23 passing, 238 yards) found Matt Collins for a 10-yard TD toss and once again on a two-point conversion, making it 28-14.

He next found Kemp a second time in the third quarter and capped off his night with a 17-yard scoring strike to Jake Pahlke in the fourth. Matthew Donnelly (16 carries, 156 yards) came in between those with a 13-yard scoring jaunt 65 seconds into the fourth.

“We learned a little bit on how to deal with adversity and that struggle,” Cacini said. “I trust my guys and they trust themselves. We just have to believe and not worry so much about all the external stuff.”