Prospect falls short in second-round shootout at Normal

NORMAL – Dan DeBoeuf brought his Mid-Suburban East champion Prospect gridiron unit 136 miles from their Mt. Prospect campus for a Class 7A Round 2 bout with Normal Community Friday night.

The Knights were seeking their first quarterfinal berth since their run to the 7A semifinals three falls ago as they also brought an eight-game win streak after an 0-2 start.

Awaiting them was an Ironmen squad that had rolled off six straight wins after a nonconference loss to Kankakee and former Knights all-stater and Elk Grove mentor Miles Osei back in September to capture their second straight Big 12 Conference title.

The Knights would battle the sixth-seeded hosts for 48 minutes rallying twice from a pair of double-digit deficits before surrendering to the Ironman 52-49 at Dick Tharp Field on senior RB Calen Taylor’s fifth touchdown run of the night from 9 yards out with 95 seconds remaining before a capacity crowd.

The loss ended Prospect’s season at 8-3 for a second straight fall.

Normal (10-1) will travel on the road next weekend to face either No. 3 seed St. Charles North (9-1) or No. 14 Mt. Carmel (8-2). Those teams play in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood Saturday evening.

Taylor (22 carries, 197 yards) had scored on jaunts of 16 and 14 yards in the first quarter and 74 and 1 yard in the third before returning from an injury he suffered when they trailed Prospect 49-45. Prospect had taken the lead when Jack Skoog connected with Nicholas Carlucci from 46 yards out with 3:45 remaining.

“It’s all about staying confident, staying together as a team,” Taylor said. “When we get down don’t start pointing fingers. Just play and battle back like we did. I feel great. I’m ready to play next week.”

That scoring pass from Skoog (23 of 35 for 372 yards) was his sixth TD toss on the night that had helped the visitors rally from being down 45-35 just four ticks into the final stanza on Will Castro’s 26-yard field goal.

Prospect spotted the hosts a 13-0 lead after one quarter. Then Skoog connected with Carlucci from 10 yards out, an open Gordon Kemp from 45 yards out with the help of an Ironmen defender who lost his footing and fell down, and Nathan Cichy from 23 yards to give them a 21-13 edge at the half.

After hitting Lucas Deines from 3 yards out on the third, he found Kemp again from 12 yards out midway the fourth to bring them within 45-42.

He would march Prospect down on their drive from its 30 to the Ironmen 43 before consecutive false start penalties forced them into a 4th-and-18 from its 47 where his 35th attempt fell into the hands of senior Jalen Fracowiak to end the threat.

Knights senior RB Noah Easter added 169 yards on 25 carries in the losing effort that featured a 10-yard scoring run in the third.

Ironmen QB Kyle Beaty went 11 for 18 with 294 yards and a pair of TD passes.

“I’m proud of our fight. We kept scraping back. We started out slow and we battled back,” DeBoeuf said.