Barrington strikes often on Libertyville
Lightning struck Friday night at Barrington, but not the kind that holds up a football game; the kind that electrifies it.
This lightning is called Barrington's Chase Murdock (37 carries, 171 yards), Matt LeMire (13-of-21 for 199 yards and 2 TDs) and receivers Zach Dulla (6 receptions, 72 yards and a TD) and Joey Feeney (3 for 54 and a TD).
Then there was Libertyville's A.J. Schurr (15-of-32, 177 yards and 4 TDs) and magical receiver Jeremy Birck (9 receptions, 126 yards, 2 TDs).
Barrington had a little more thunder though as the teams combined for 734 yards of total offense in the Broncos' 41-28 win.
And while Barrington may have won the game with a 28-point first quarter, the Broncos sealed the win with a patient, grind-it-out offense that kept Schurr and Co. off the field much of the second half.
"We were able to execute," down the stretch, when it counted, said Barrington head coach Joe Sanchez. "The kids did a great job."
They had to. After Schurr rallied Libertyville back within one score twice in the second half, LeMire, the long, cool Texas transfer, patiently directed scoring drives of 74 and 70 yards, relying on the steady Murdock to get the tough yards.
They included a dynamic, twisting, refuse-to-be-stopped 27-yard jolt for the game's final score. He gained 51 of the 70 yards in the drive. He knew why.
The offensive line. "They have been working hard," he said in praise of a large and powerful group that includes Aaron Castagna, Dan Voltz, Mason Darrow, Lee Conforti and Pat Bolger. And don't forget fullback Jeremy Rafidia.
And as far as carrying the ball 37 times? "Perfect," he said. "I've been working real hard all summer."
He also had the game's opening score on a 7-yard run, set up by speedy J.L. Etienne's 38-yard punt return as Barrington dominated field position most of the night.
When Murdock wasn't cutting up the outsized Wildcat defense, LeMire was slicing it up with precision to Dulla and Feeney. With the running game working as well as it did, play-action worked perfectly on a 28-yard TD to Dulla and a 36-yarder to Feeney, both in the first period.
Throw in Peter Cobb's 46-yard TD on a pick of Schurr and it looked like Barrington was going to run away and hide. Or, not. "We knew they weren't done," Sanchez said of the Wildcats.
Schurr wasn't. Doing whatever he had to do to escape Barrington's hard-charging defensive effort, he consistently found Birck all over, including TDs of 30 and 17 yards in the first half and later a pair of 2-point conversions in the second half. Schurr even darted 20 yards for a second-half TD. But he knew the problem was more than just falling behind 28-0.
"It would've been a lot closer game if we hadn't shot ourselves in the foot," he said. And he cited "consistency" as the one thing Libertyville needs to do to improve.
Head coach Randy Kuceyeski said his defense "couldn't stop them in the second half" to get the ball back and falling behind 28-0 "was not exactly what we were looking for."
Barrington's somewhat inexperienced defense, while victimized by Schurr and Birck, did make its share of big plays. The newly formed secondary featured Dylan Zyzda tipping three balls away from Birck on a key second-half possession that could've turned the momentum of the game completely.
"I was really proud of our defensive kids," said Sanchez.
It was "very encouraging," said Murdock, who called LeMire's first game with his new mates "real good" and praised his leadership.