Prospect takes a stand
For all the points, the yardage and spectacular long gainers in Friday night's Elk Grove-Prospect varsity football game, the Mid-Suburban East battle just might have come down to a few plays by the Knights' defense.
Prospect likely sealed its 33-26 victory in the third quarter when its defensive backfield collectively forced Matt McEnery out of bounds on the end zone backline with what would've been a game-tying TD grab. Then the Knights stopped scrambling Nick Meyer 2 yards short of the goal on the ensuing fourth down, forcing them to surrender the ball, and the momentum.
Prospect (6-1, 2-1) officially wrapped up a playoff berth on a night when Peter Bonahoom set a school record with 353 yards rushing on 26 carries.
How'd he do it, plus score 3 touchdowns and offset a brilliant performance by Meyer (152 yards rushing, 238 passing)?
Call it the offensive line.
"The holes were huge," he said. But he lit up after dropping a would-be TD pass from Miles Osei and came back on the next play to dart 78 for a TD in the second quarter.
"I turned to my offensive line," after the dropped ball off his fingertips and said, "'Just take me to the next level.'"
Mike Geweniger, Kyle Kapka, Matt Huene, Matt Boll and Victor Rhee did just that all night. Even after Elk Grove pinned the Knights at their own 1 after brilliant punt coverage early in the fourth quarter, they drove the length of the field for a score, an 11-play, 4-minute, 55-second drive on which Bonahoom carried 8 times, including the final 10 for a TD and a 27-20 lead.
"The line did a nice job all night," said head coach Brent Pearlman. "Peter ran extremely hard. We kind of made a decision during the week we were going to come out and run the football and we did."
Except when they didn't, like when Miles Osei dropped a perfect fade into streaking John Coen's hands for a 39-yard second-quarter score, part of a 100-yard passing night.
It was Meyer though who shined at quarterback on this night, when renowned college scout Tom Lemming was in attendance checking out Osei.
"It's definitely a measuring stick," Meyer said, finding out his young club (4-3, 1-2) can compete with a power like Prospect. "Prospect's supposed to be one of the best teams in the conference and they showed it."
Elk Grove accumulated nearly 400 yards in total offense as he ran for two scores and threw for two more, to Joey Bishoff for 16 yards and Eddie Solorio for 64. But the drive that took almost seven minutes off the clock and wound up with nothing to show was painful.
"I started jumping up and down," Meyer said after McEnery caught the third-down toss in the end zone and before he was declared out of bounds. Then Meyer was stopped on fourth down and the game was over, for all intents and purposes.
"Occasionally, we make a stop," said Pearlman, tongue-in-cheek, whose defense did a much better job against the high-flying Grens in the second half.
"We feel like we're starting to play with the elite teams," said first-year Grenadier head man Brian Doll.
And if they can win their last two games, they'll definitely get a shot at a few more in the playoffs.