Running hard: Palatine’s plan worked for the win

Run, Palatine Pirates, run.

Behold the simple game plan in host Palatine's thrilling 37-34 overtime defeat of Prospect Friday night.

Down 31-17 at 7:58 of the fourth quarter, Palatine — ranked fourth in the Daily Herald's Top 20 football poll — got 3- and 1-yard touchdown runs from senior running back Kole Fager (12 rushes, 86 yards, 4 touchdowns) in the final 5:37 to force the extra session.

Fager then scored the clincher, a 4-yard burst, after seventh-ranked Prospect settled for a 27-yard field goal on its lone possession in OT.

Palatine (2-0) tallied 5 rushing TDs to Prospect's 4 in a game that stood 17-17 at the half.

Before Fager's final TD, the one that triggered euphoria from Pirates Nation in the Pirates' home opener, he was treated for cramps along the sideline.

“Calf, hamstring ... I feel fine now,” said a beaming Fager, who sprinted 50 yards for the Pirates' first score of the night, answering Knights RB Matthew Donnelly's 6-yard TD skip to put the visitors up 6-0 at 10:15 of the first quarter.

Fager also caught 5 passes for a game-high 86 yards.

Donnelly finished with 159 yards rushing on 21 carries for the Knights (1-1).

Pirates senior quarterback Will Santiago passed for only 34 yards in the first half but set up his club for key rushing TDs after intermission and wound up 18 for 25 for 153 yards.

His counterpart, Prospect's Jackson Cacini completed 11 of 18 passes for 160 yards and rushed for a pair of 1-yard TDs.

Another Pirates hero was sophomore kicker Eliaz Egbe, who suffered a serious leg injury on a roughing-the-kicker penalty but made every extra point and a 23-yard FG thereafter.

Palatine junior RB Ray Gaspard ran hard all night for coach Corey Olson's crew, churning his way to 103 yards on 16 carries.

Pirates DB Anthony Kurey --- a grandson of former Palatine football coach Joe Petricca --- came down with a second-half interception.

Palatine defeated host Prospect 14-9 in last season's meeting.