Prospect beats Hersey in matchup of MSL East leaders, wins fifth straight

MT. PROSPECT – The neighborhood rivalry was a first-place Mid-Suburban East showdown on Thursday night at Prospect’s George Gattas Memorial Stadium.

The host Knights from Mt. Prospect and the Hersey Huskies from bordering Arlington Heights took the field with identical 4-2 and 2-0 records and four-game winning streaks.

When it ended, Prospect won its fifth straight game with a 30-27 victory, sparked by senior Noah Easter’s 131 rushing yards and QB Jack Skoog’s 152 passing yards.

“It’s amazing,” Easter said. “It’s everything we’ve we been working for.”

“The thing about Noah is that he is even a better person and student ‚” Prospect coach Dan DeBoeuf said. “You ask any of his teachers and he’s always the first to volunteer to do anything. It’s great to see a kid like that have this success.”

Trailing 27-23 with 4:10 left, the Knights went 55 yards in five plays, capped by Easter’s 11-yard game-winning TD run with 2:08 left.

Prospect took the opening kick and went 70 yards to score the game’s first touchdown, a 22-yard run up the middle by Easter for a 6-0 advantage with 8:33 on the clock. That was the longest play of the drive followed by Skoog’s 16-yard pass to Nathan Cichy.

With linemen Sal Marabotti, Jackson Organ, DJ Maloney, Jack Nolan and Ehren Dammann providing the blocking, Hersey answered when Brandon Jenkins (225 rushing yards) raced around left end 73 yards for a touchdown. Hersey led 7-6 after Chris Ries’ extra point with 3:25 left in the first quarter.

A beautiful punt by Carter Cremascola from the Knights’ 40 -yard line was downed at the Hersey 3-yard line late in the first quarter.

Colton Gumino (124 yards rushing) then drove the Huskies all the way to the Knights’ 8-yard line before Lucas Thomas made an interception and ran it out to the 10-yard line with 5:53 left in the half.

A pair of three-and-outs ensured before Prospect took the lead with 24.8 seconds left in the half.

With the blocking protection of Erik Murray, Dylan Heber, Carson Range, Joseph Morales and J.J. Tsagalis, Skoog threw a 15-yard pass to Cichy to cap a 79-yard to give the hosts a 12-7 lead at intermission.

Hersey scored on the opening drive of the second half, going 80 yards in 10 plays, capped by Gumino’s 1-yard keeper for a 13-12 lead.

Prospect answered with an 80-yard scoring drive that concluded with Easter’s 2-yard run followed by Skoog running up the middle for the 2-point conversion and 20-13 advantage with 3:38 left in the third quarter.

Hersey tied the game on Gumino’s 7-yard TD run (another 80 yard drive) followed by Ries’ extra point to tie it at 20-20 with 18.1 seconds left in the third quarter.

Carter Cremascola’s 48-yard field goal put Prospect ahead 23-20 with 10:34 left in the game.

But Hersey went ahead 27-23 with another 80-yard drive with Gumino rushing 23 yards and a 1-yard TD on the final two plays. Ries extra point made it 27-23 with 6:35 left.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20241010/prep-football/prospect-downs-hersey-takes-lead-in-msl-east/