By Wyatt Dojutrek, executive online sports editor
The atmosphere inside George Gattas Memorial Stadium was electric throughout the game, however, the varsity football team could not use this advantage to guide them, as they fell to Highland Park 31-7.
The atmosphere even impressed the likes of Highland Park head coach Joe Horeni.
“This place is awesome,” Horeni said. “The fans were fantastic. I thought it was a really cool place to play football, and they really packed the house here.”
Highland Park got off to a quick start after kicking off to start the game, as the Giants drove the ball 79 yards en route to a 4-yard touchdown run by Tom Motzko.
After a Prospect interception in the second quarter, the Giants struck right back, this time thru the air, on a 44 yard touchdown pass from John Sakos to Giancarlo Volpentesta.
Highland Park running back Ryan Brinks scored the first of his two touchdown runs as the first half was coming to a close.
However, the Knights came right back. Led by juniors Jimmy Martin and Michael Shafis, the Knights drove the ball 63 yards in 5 plays to put up Prospect’s only points for the game.
Brinks would kick a field goal to make it a 24-7 halftime score in favor of the Giants.
Brinks added another touchdown in the second half, all but sealing the game for the Giants.
Head coach Mike Sebestyen thought Highland Park’s ability to get more yards after contact both on the ground and through the air proved costly for the Knights.
“It’s a simple story, they played a physical football game and out-physicaled us,” Sebestyen said. “End of story, they simply came downhill, punched us in the mouth and we were not able to rally quick enough to come back.”
The Knights fall to 1-3 on the season, and will look to bounce back on the road next week against undefeated Buffalo Grove, led by junior quarterback Connor Adams and junior running back Tom Trieb.
Sebestyen and the Knights attention is now completely on facing the Bison
“[Buffalo Grove] is our next task,” Sebestyen said. “We got to get ready for a game seven days from now, so we will go back to the drawing board and get to work.”