Rolling Meadows 10, Prospect 7

How did Rolling Meadows feel about beating Prospect?

"It feels amazing," said linebacker Joe Okon, who paced the defensive effort in Friday's 10-7 win at Prospect.

"It feels amazing," said fullback/linebacker Mikal Johnson, Meadows' Mr.-Do-Everything who scored its only TD on a second-quarter 2-yard plunge.

"In the big scheme of things, I don't know how big it was," Meadows coach Doug Millsaps said of the Mid-Suburban East victory that left his team undefeated (6-0, 2-0). "We've seemed to come out on the short end of things," he recalled though of last year's two bitter defeats to Prospect, including in the Class 7A playoffs.

What he did know though was, "Our defense really played well," after limiting Prospect to 180 total yards and coming up with huge play after huge play to deny the Knights (3-3, 1-1) the potential go-ahead and/or game-tying scores.

How'd they do that?

"We were sending a lot of blitzes," said Okon, regardless of whether speedy sophomore Miles Osei or veteran senior Alex Lazarz was doing the signal-calling. "Both quarterbacks have different styles. We kind of game-planned for both of them."

And contained them both, except for one play -- a 49-yard pump-and-go TD pass from Lazarz to a wide-open Osei in the third quarter that tied the game at 7-7.

"What we paid attention to was getting pressure on them," he said. And they did, throwing starter Osei for losses three times during his stint at QB and putting Lazarz down behind the line five times.

Johnson, Joe Garoppolo, Eric Louis-Charles, Kelly Jauch and Rick Brown all contributed to that effort, while Ty Kirk, Stan Pheteau and Trevor Fritz helped contain the wide receivers.

They erased some mistakes too, including an early lost fumble on a punt and some poor field position after some effective punting and coverage by the Knights.

Kevin Serna provided the game-wining points with a tie-breaking 23-yard field goal with 11:46 left in the game, set up in large part by Kirk's athletic grab of Ben Sabal's long pass for a 43-yard gain where he out-leaped and out-wrestled two defenders.

"They're always tough," Johnson said of the Knights. "I have much respect for Prospect and their program. But I have much love for our players tonight."

Prospect coach Brent Pearlman isn't sure what he loves or doesn't love at this point.

"I think we lacked a little bit in mental discipline at times," he said, referring to some dropped passes, defensive breakdowns and crucial missed executions. But he liked how Eric Senft stepped up to lead the team in rushing (7 carries, 75 yards). "The kids played hard, there's no question."

Meadows played hard too, and despite finally conquering its Prospect demon, it knows it has work to do.

"Our No. 1 goal is to win the (MSL) East," said Millsaps of his top-ranked 7A team.

"We're not done yet," said Okon.