Barrington Football Star Scores Big Against Hersey

Barrington’s senior Chase Murdock had an incredible second half (23 carries for 165 yards and two touchdowns) while crashing Hersey’s home opener, and their newly installed field turf, but it almost didn’t happen.

“It was a last minute decision to start me,” said Murdock who was hampered by a leg issue.

“He was a game time decision,” Barrington’s coach Joe Sanchez said of Murdock’s play.  “We didn’t know what was going to happen, but he came up big.”

The decision turned out to be a good one as Murdock helped lead the Broncos to a 28-19 win over their MSL east rival, the Huskies.  Murdock ended the game rushing for 245 yards on 35 carries and scored three touchdowns.

Murdock’s first touchdown, a three-yard run capping a 13 play drive, gave the Broncos a 7-6 lead during the second quarter. 

Hersey (2-1) was able to get the late first quarter lead with their own rushing touchdown, a one yarder by senior Andrew Collins (12 carries for 28 yards and two touchdowns).  Hersey’s touchdown was set-up on Barrington’s turnover on downs from a muffed punt deep in their own territory.  The Huskies would miss the valuable extra point.

Barrington (2-1) would build on their 7-6 lead with 1:32 remaining in the second quarter with senior quarterback Mark Bennett’s one yard sneak which gave the Broncos a 14-6 advantage heading into halftime.  Bennett would end the day completing 8 of 16 for 52 yards and an unfortunate interception that was off the hands of one of his receivers. 

Murdock, on the sidelines, saw Bennett’s touchdown being set-up by fellow running backs, junior Justin Dragosz (7 attempts for 44 yards) and senior Austin Schmidt (7 carries for 23 yards), taking their turns against a Hersey defense that gave up 378 total yards (326 yards rushing).

“Dragosz did a great job and Schmidt stepped in to help us big time,” Murdock said.  “These guys took some of that pounding off of me and it’s great to see these guys stepping in like that.”

“Coach (Sanchez) came to me and said, ’We are going to rest you up a little bit, and I then want you to come back in and finish this game for us,’” Murdock went on to say.  “All three of us (Dragosz and Schmidt) were just going to pound it out together.”

“We wanted to get both Dragosz and Schmidt into the game,” Sanchez said of one of the purposes for resting Murdock.  “Dragosz and Schmidt gave us a good change of pace.”    

But in the second half the bulk of the carries went to Murdock who quickly reestablished himself in the backfield by steamrolling defenders on his way to an eleven yard touchdown run at 8:36 in the third frame.  The score gave the Broncos a comfortable 21-6 lead.

Hersey would keep the game close with Collins’s second rushing touchdown a few minutes later (4:44 mark of the third quarter) but the Huskies failed two-point conversion would now leave them two scores behind the Broncos and trailing 21-12. 

The Broncos hard hitting defense only allowed 85 rushing yards and the constant defensive line pressure on Hersey’s quarterback Brad Zaucha (17 of 29 for 202 yards; 1 touchdown and 3 interceptions) forced his first interceptions of the season.  Barrington won the turnover battle 4-3 with Sam Handler, J.P. Brooks, Hank Mitchell all having interceptions, while Javier Diaz recovered Hersey’s lone fumble.    

After having their chances to put the game away, the Broncos saw Hersey creep back into the game late in the fourth quarter (2:26) with a five yard touchdown reception to senior Brian Kiss that made it 21-19.  Kiss had 74 all-purpose yards from scrimmage (13 rushing).

Hersey would be unable to get the ball back via the on-side kick moments later and just 52 seconds after the Huskies had scored, Murdock would bust tackles en route to his third touchdown on the evening, a 46 yarder giving the Broncos a 28-19 victory.

“It was a game all the way to the end, and we knew that (Hersey) was going to fight hard,” Sanchez said after the game.  “We are still learning to put games away, and we had chances to end it by maybe creating that two or three score separation; we weren’t able to do that and part of that goes to Hersey because they were able to make plays when they needed to.”

The Broncos will be on the road again next week as they head to Wheeling (1-2) to finish their MSL east portion of the schedule on Friday, Sept. 16 at 7:30 p.m.