By Michael Wojtychiw

BARRINGTON, IL – Glenbrook South came into Friday’s MSL/CSL crossover looking to do something they hadn’t since the 2014 season: start the year 4-0.

Standing in its way, however, was Barrington, a program the Titans hadn’t beaten since the opening round of the 2010 state playoffs.

The Titans took every punch the Broncos threw at them, but held off the home team by intercepting the Barrington quarterback on the last two possessions of the game to secure a 15-14 win Friday evening, Sept. 17, in Barrington.

“I thought our kids played really hard,” Glenbrook South coach Dave Schoenwetter said. “In the second half, they got their second wind.

“That’s a big win for our program. Winning two games against the MSL, we have a lot of respect for Barrington and the MSL and to be able to come out two weeks in a row and win those crossover games, it’s terrific.”

After the Titans’ opening drive of the game stalled at the Broncos’ 29-yard line, the teams traded punts for the next five possessions before Barrington was finally able to muster an extended drive.

That drive ended with a 77-yard touchdown pass from Barrington quarterback Harley Thompson to Jack Serrano, giving the home squad a 6-0 lead early in the second quarter.

But that’s when Glenbrook South running back/defensive back Will Collins took matters into his own hands.

The senior, who is playing for the first time since his freshman year after battling consecutive seasons of injuries, returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards to give his team a 7-6 lead that would stick throughout the rest of the half.

“It feels amazing (to be back),” he said. “I can’t even put it into words, especially after that game.

“When they scored the first touchdown I said ‘I’m taking that kick all the way. (Matt) Burda usually takes the kickoff, but I told him I want it. I slid over there and just took it all the way.”

The Broncos, who would connect on long plays all night, hit on another one just 57 seconds into the second half, when Thompson connected with Connor Lee for a 72-yard score. A two-point run by Thompson gave the hosts the 14-7 lead.

Despite the low touchdowns, it seemed as if every time the Broncos would gain a lot of yards on a single play, they would be hurt by penalties. They accumulated over 100 yards of penalties.

A good example of the Broncos’ penalty misfortunes was at the end of the third quarter when a 20+-yard run by Evan Panesis that would have set Barrington up at the Glenbrook South three-yard-line was wiped out by a holding penalty. Three plays later, another hold on 4th-and-16 erased a 35-yard touchdown pass, forcing the Broncos (2-2) to punt.

“We fought today,” Barrington coach Joe Sanchez said. “We had a lot of mistakes on our part, a lot of penalties, but despite all of that I was really happy with how we fought.

“It’s discouraging when all the penalties happen, but that’s on us. That’s on technique, that’s on fundamentals. Those are things we’ve got to be better at.

“But that didn’t cost us the game, what cost us the game was our lack of execution.”

Collins (19 carries, 87 rushing yards) and fellow running back Matt Burda (16 carries, 82 rushing yards) would carry the team on the ensuing drive after the aforementioned Barrington punt, which was downed at the one-yard line. The two combined for all but two of the 79 yards gained by the offense. An inadvertent facemask and a defensive pass interference penalty, both of which happened on third downs, aided the drive that was capped off by a one-yard Collins plunge.

Nie Swanson gave the squad the lead for good with 4:58 remaining when he went around the right side and dove in for the two-point conversion.

The Titans still had to hold off the Broncos, however. And they did just that by intercepting Thompson twice, once by Andre Namroud at the Titans’ 30-yard line and the game-clinching interception by Tommy MacPherson with 1:23 remaining.

“Our defense has gotten better each week,” Schoenwetter said. “That’s been another trend that we’ve seen.

“We had a lot of new players in our linebacking corp and our secondary and they’re starting to figure out what they’re really supposed to do.”

Even after giving up the multiple long passes, it was the Glenbrook South offense that came out to shine when the team needed it the most.

“In practice, we go over about bouncing back after the other team makes a big play,” Collins said. “So in the game, when that happens, we’re ready to go.

“Everyone on the team, their heads are up, you don’t get down on yourselves, we’re going to come out like it’s 0-0. It’s always tough you let them score like that, but we bounced back in a big way.”

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