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Sports

Palatine Too Much for Barrington Broncos

Barrington's turnovers to open second half help Pirates to a 35-14 win.

All season the Palatine Pirates defense has created turnovers and turned them into points. Things were no different in the Pirates heavily-touted mathup against their MSL West rival Barrington Friday.

“The defense played great and got the ball, and that gave us more shots (to score),” Palatine’s junior quarterback Ethan Olles said of the team’s four takeaways which included 2 fumbles. The takeaways helped fuel Palatine’s 35-14 victory over the Broncos. Palatine (5-1) won their fifth straight and capped off a festive homecoming week.

With the Pirates leading 14-7 to start the second half, the defense forced Barrington’s senior running back Chase Murdock to fumble on the Bronco’s first play. Three Pirate plays later they extended their lead with junior Cam Kuksa’s 21-yard touchdown run making the score 21-7. Kuksa had six carries for 66 yards and two touchdowns.

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“We have a big run game,” running back John Serio said of the different weapons that were thrown at the Broncos that included Olles, Cam Kuksa, Alex Nawrot, and Sam Miller.

Palatine would intercept Barrington’s senior quarterback Mark Bennett (12 of 24 for 76 yards and two interceptions) a few plays later. Olles tossed a 48-yard bomb to junior wide receiver Lucas Rago to give Palatine a 28-7 advantage.

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Rago ended the game catching three passes for 75 yards while Olles finished completing 5 of his 9 passes for 125 yards. Olles also ran the ball five times for 49 yards.

“The game just got away from us in the second half,” Barrington’s coach Joe Sanchez said. “We gave up those two turnovers and they got 14 points off of it.”

“I thought Olles' play was very good,” Palatine’s head coach Tyler Donnelly said. “He had some nice deep balls, which is something he does well.”

After taking the three touchdown lead, Palatine would turn to their offensive line and pound the ball for the rest of the half. The Pirates racked up 231 yards on the ground against a normally stingy Barrington defense that allows just 190 yards per game and gave up an average of 14 points per contest coming into the game.

“The offensive line played outstanding again,” Donnelly said. “We have a running back by committee with each runner giving us something different, even Olles ran the ball well.”

It was the run game that kicked off the scoring for both teams as Palatine’s junior running back John Serio capped an 82-yard, 11-play drive with a one yard run in the second quarter to give the Pirates a 7-0 lead. 

After the Serio touchdown, Barrington would use an 11 play drive to tie the game at 7 on Murdock’s six yard run. Murdock would end the game with 214 yards on 39 carries and two touchdowns, his other run being a 46-yarder late in the third quarter that would cut the Pirate lead to 28-14.

“Barrington is huge, and good,” Donnelly said. “They have a heck of a runner (in Murdock) and we knew he would get his runs, we just tried to limit them; we were fortunate to have the lead when he did have his runs.” 

Knotted at seven, the Palatine offense would immediately get back to work orchestrating a 10 play drive. This time Serio would lead the team downfield with both his feet and his arm, completing a five yard pass that would give the Pirates a 14-7 halftime lead.

Serio would end the game leading all Pirate rushers with 82 yards on 20 carries, and completing one pass for a touchdown.

“When I dipped down (behind the offensive line), I saw the corner bite,” Serio said.  “I just threw it and (senior Taylor Hall) was wide open.”

Palatine will have a short week to prepare for a crosstown rivalry showdown at Fremd Thursday, Oct. 6 at 6:30 p.m.

“You don’t have to say anything to get ready for Fremd,” Olles said.  “A crosstown classic, it is always a big game.”

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