Like many high school football coaches in the state of Illinois, Mike Burzawa had some concerns regarding Evanston’s team’s depth entering the 2024 season.
A lack of depth on special teams didn’t rank very high on his list of potential problem areas, though.
That turned out to be an issue that rose up and bit the Wildkits Friday night, as an injury to kicker Jasper Barney had a huge impact in a 25-19 loss at Palatine.
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When Barney went down with a pulled groin muscle in the second quarter, ETHS couldn’t cope trying to replace the junior who handles kickoffs, punts and also placekicks for the Wildkits. Evanston didn’t have to punt after Barney’s exit, but the Kits missed a couple of 2-point attempts and a couple of poor kickoffs enabled the Pirates (2-1) to drive just 45 yards for the game-winning touchdown with 5 minutes, 22 seconds left in the game.
Evanston fell to 1-2 after rallying from a 19-7 deficit to tie the game at 19-19 on Ryan Wambo’s 11-yard TD run on a reverse early in the final period.
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The defeat stung because the Wildkits reclaimed the toughness they lacked in a blowout loss to Saint Laurence last week where they gave up more than 300 yards rushing. Friday, the visitors held the Pirates to just 86 yards on the ground and Palatine quarterback Will Santiago completed 11-of-14 passing attempts for 167 yards and a score.
“We worked our tails off in practice this week, and it showed,” Burzawa praised. “We wanted to be physical and run the ball --- and we did that. We got back to being tough. There’s so much for us to build on after tonight that I can’t wait to play that brand of football again next week.
“I saw some great things, but it wasn’t good enough. We were really forced into a trick bag because we have backups everywhere except at kicker. I couldn’t be more proud of their effort and toughness, but in the end it’s still an L (loss).”
Pressed into action as a kicker, Enijel Shelton booted back-to-back kickoffs out of bounds --- that’s a penalty in high school football --- to set the Pirates up for the homecoming victory. Shelton had no prior experience kicking off at the varsity level, although he did see action as a punter a few times as a junior.
Taking over at the ETHS 45, Palatine marched 45 yards to paydirt in 10 plays as Kole Fager took a direct snap in a Wildcat formation and scored on a 2-yard run.
Evanston had one last opportunity to score, but backup quarterback Daryl Harmon --- who replaced starter Colin Livatino this week after Livatino suffered a concussion in Week 2 --- threw three incomplete passes trying to work out of his own territory and turned the ball over on downs.
Harmon, in his first varsity start at QB, completed 10-of-15 passes for 71 yards. Evanston totaled 143 yards on the ground.
The visitors weren’t able to muster much offensively in the first half and trailed 12-0 before senior Avan Teuer returned a kickoff 99 yards for a score with 6:17 left before the intermission. Palatine responded with a 65-yard march and got on the board again to make it 19-7 behind a 7-yard TD run by Ray Gaspard.
The hosts, however, made two costly mistakes to aid Evanston’s cause in the second half. Palatine’s Rufus Clark foolishly tried to grab a Shelton kickoff that was headed out of bounds on the opening possession and that stuck the Pirates back at their own 5.
After a punt, Evanston closed the gap to 19-13 on a 6-yard burst by Mike Pryor (12 carries for 44 yards). Wambo’s reverse PAT pass, however, fell incomplete.
Five plays later, Jamarcus White was credit with a strip and fumble recovery when Palatine receiver Jordan Bostick dropped the ball at midfield. Instant replay might have shown that it was really just an incomplete pass, but the call stood and the Kits took over at the Palatine 38.
From there, it only took six plays to reach the end zone on a reverse run by Wambo. But the Pirates stopped an attempted PAT run by Harmon to keep the score knotted at 19-all.
Burzawa expects Livatino to be back in action for next Friday’s Homecoming game versus Prospect, but had nothing but praise for the quarterback who filled in for him in the loss. Harmon, a 6-foot 220-pounder, normally starts in the defensive line and his skill set is markedly different from Livatino’s.
“With every quarterback, we try to play to his strengths, and we tried to ride Daryl’s strengths tonight,” said the ETHS coach. “Daryl showed toughness and played a whale of a game. He really knows the offense, even though he’s a converted lineman, and he played his heart out tonight. And he had a touchdown pass called back (by a holding penalty in the final minute of the first half) on an unbelievable play. It was perfectly executed, and that call really hurt us.”
