Prospect, Bonahoom rebound
If anyone was wondering whether Prospect would bounce back from its disheartening opening loss, the Knights answered assertively Friday night at home in a Mid-Suburban League football crossover against Fremd.
With Peter Bonahoom exploding for 195 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus an interception among four takeaways, Prospect scored a resounding 28-14 win that was as lopsided statistically as it was physically and on the scoreboard.
Prospect rarely let Fremd get field position and dominated time of possession.
How? Both Bonahoom and head coach Brent Pearlman started with the defense.
"We were more disciplined on defense," than in week one, said Bonahoom, who rarely left the field. "We were sticking to our scheme," which limited high-powered Fremd to 149 total yards, 72 on a mop-up, game-closing drive that accounted for the final score.
"We were more disciplined," Pearlman said. "We did our jobs. We did not play with discipline last week," in a 34-21 loss to York.
And it was disciplined from the get-go as Bonahoom and quarterback Steve Dazzo rambled for 292 yards behind Matt Boll, Anthony Babicz, Dan Panicko and Peyton Eckert.
Meanwhile, Babicz, Bonahoom, Sam Frasco (interception) and Grant DePalma paced a defensive effort that limited Rich Concialdi to 108 yards passing and bottled up powerhouse running back Justin Wallace for 38 yards on 19 carries. Wallace did have a 5-yard TD after Fremd recovered a fumble deep in Knight territory.
While that made it 21-7 and gave the Vikes hope, the Knights quickly extinguished it with a 63-yard scoring drive following a Bonahoom pick, taking a full five minutes off the clock in the final quarter and all but erasing any Fremd (0-2) hopes. Dazzo finished the drive with a 10-yard scamper around right end.
The previous score took all of 15 seconds as Bonahoom turned around left end and sprinted all the way back to the right, got a block from Frasco and finished the 78-yard run. He gave credit where credit was due, to the offensvie line.
"They really stepped up," he said. And when Fremd stepped out of its 5-3 alignment and tried something else to slow the Knights (1-1), "We adjusted," said Bonahoom, without skipping a beat.
"We were running the ball fairly well," Pearlman said. "The offensive line did a nice job." As did Bonahoom and Dazzo in a combined 40 carries.
"Anytime we didn't have something, they created something." he said of their ability to wait for holes to form, break tackles or just make people miss.
They created headaches for Fremd, too, as it fell to 0-2 for the first time since 1990.
"Prospect didn't do anything we didn't expect them to do," said Fremd coach Mike Donatucci. "We got handled up front. They thoroughly thrashed us."
He was heartened by freshman quarterback Sam Beutler's ability to put a TD on the board late in the game, but other than that, and some spirited play from Jeff Diegel (6 catches, 62 yards), tight end Jack Konopka (4 for 30) and defensively from Adam Mertes, Fremd rarely mustered a challenge and now faces Elk Grove.
A must win?
"We have to bounce back," said Donatucci.