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Friday Night Drive

Barrington gets convincing win at Conant

Barrington Broncos logo

The slogan of the 2025 season for Barrington has been, “Earn The Right.”

That is exactly what the Broncos (5-1, 2-0) did on Friday night as they in all likelihood are in the playoffs after running for four touchdowns and throwing two more on their way to a convincing 41-14 road victory over Conant Conant in Hoffman Estates.

“The boys talked all offseason and talked all summer about wanting to earn the right to be in a position to get into the postseason, earn the right to play for an MSL West championship, and earn the right to play as deep as we possibly can,” said Barrington coach Joe Sanchez. “And the boys did that.”

The Broncos have been led by a potent offense that is averaging a hair under 40 points per game through six weeks.

Against the Cougars (2-4, 0-2), it was spearheaded by a pair of talented tailbacks, senior Cameron Massillo and sophomore Lamar Osterhues, who both pounded the ball all evening behind a stout offensive line.

“We try to be as balanced as possible,” said Sanchez. “If a defense is going to sit back and say ‘we’re not going to give up the big plays in the passing game,’ then we’ve got to be able to take advantage of the run game. And that’s what our guys did tonight.”

They found that balance early on, as Osterhues took three carries on Barrington’s opening possession and punched in the first of his two touchdowns on a 1-yard run to give the Broncos a 7-0 lead.

The next time they touched the ball, senior quarterback Luke Tepas found standout junior wide receiver Austin Coles on a 30 yard strike to the front corner of the endzone.

“They have players all over the place,” said Conant coach Anthony Donatucci. “They’re good sized. They’re coached really well, and it’s just a phenomenal team.”

Coles, a three-star prospect with several Division 1 scholarship offers, stands 6-foot-4 and out-jumped the Conant defense to haul in the pass from Tepas to make it a two-possession contest.

“He’s so dynamic,” said Sanchez about his junior receiver. “He’s got such strong hands, and he goes up and he gets the ball, and he’s got such a great catch radius.”

“What starts to happen is people start to slant their coverage towards him. So then that creates opportunities for other guys,” added Sanchez.

That’s exactly what happened just before halftime, when Barrington junior Vince Costa lined up in the slot and snagged a Tepas touchdown pass to make the score 35-0 Broncos entering the locker room.

“I have a post [route] and like, there’s no safety over the top,” said Costa, with a grin. “Luke looks at me. He just gives me a little head nod. And I just run my route … he throws a bullet across the middle and I just hang on to it and I’m in the end zone.”

It was his fourth touchdown of the season and gave the Broncos a commanding lead that they would not surrender.

The balanced attack was further solidified by Massillo, who ran for two scores of his own.

“I’d say a great offensive line for sure,” said Massillo when asked about the keys to the game. “They definitely helped big time, opened the holes and pushed the defense around.”

Massillo scored one touchdown in the first half and another one midway through the third quarter on a 17 yard scamper to the endzone to make the score 41-7. Barrington cruised the rest of the way.

The Broncos will now look to take a step towards earning the MSL West championship they have their eyes set on next week in a marquee matchup at home against unbeaten Fremd.

“We just hope for a great week next week against them,” said Massillo. “We look forward to it.”

As for Conant, they will look to regain the momentum they had found earlier in the season when they visit Schaumburg next Friday.

“We have to do better as coaches to prepare our kids and mentally get them ready to go,” said Donatucci. “We tell our kids that they have three things that they can control: effort, attitude, and discipline, and we’re just going to go back to that.”