MSL Football Playoffs: First Prospect-Hersey Rematch in 2002 Drama-Filled
Knights Avenged Regular-Season Loss with Long Drive, Last-Second TD in Second-Round Game on Way to Second Consecutive 7A State Title
Most of the spotlight of the 2002 Mid-Suburban League football season shined on the highly anticipated sequel(s) between Prospect and Buffalo Grove.
Prospect was coming off an unbeaten run to a Class 7A state title with a team many viewed as even more talented. Buffalo Grove’s 2 losses in 2001 were to its new-found MSL East rival and it had future Notre Dame all-American and NFL player Tommy Zbikowski back to lead a group loaded with talent.
Then Hersey literally kicked its way into the picture on sophomore Kevin Mazur’s field goal on the final play of a dramatic 17-14 regular-season victory over the Knights. That set up an even more compelling 7A second-round playoff rematch, which was the only time the two schools just 3 miles apart met in the postseason until Friday’s 2024 7A first-round meeting.
A 96-yard drive in the final 7 minutes saw Prospect pull out a 13-7 victory on its way to a second consecutive 7A state title.
“When you look at this game it was a lot like the first one,” said Hersey coach Mike Mullaney, “except they scored at the end in this one.”
The Prelude
The 2002 season was one of the best in the history of MSL football. Five of the six playoff qualifiers won a first-round game and Fremd lost 13-7 to a 10-win Lane Tech team that hung with eventual 8A runner-up Stevenson before falling 16-6.
Conant beat Barrington twice in three weeks to win the MSL West and advance to the 8A quarterfinals, where it lost 9-7 at Stevenson on a field goal with two minutes to play.
But the attention was focused on Week 5 and the opening of division play with Prospect hosting Buffalo Grove. A year earlier, the Knights won 6-0 in a Saturday afternoon monsoon at BG and 21-12 in the quarterfinals. The hyped rematch of unbeatens saw an estimated 9,000 watch BG take a 20-point lead and hang on for a 20-14 victory.
Prospect seemed to get back on track in Week 6 with a 35-0 win over Elk Grove. Hersey, which made the playoffs at 5-5 a year earlier, was 3-3 after a 21-0 loss to BG.
But the Huskies’ record was deceiving going into the matchup at Prospect. They lost their opener 13-12 to Lyons, which finished 7-3, and a Week 3 crossover to Barrington 20-9. They had also handled Conant 24-6 in an MSL crossover.
Facing Prospect on its homecoming figured to be daunting enough for the Huskies and then they lost a big part of their offense just three plays in when running back Matt Standish sprained his knee. But their tough defense kept them in a scoreless deadlock until Prospect all-area running back Bryon Gattas scored on a 3-yard run with 4:17 left in the first half.
Hersey quarterback Mike Chernick (18-for-25, 163 yards) responded after halftime and hit Joe Manglardi for a tying 22-yard touchdown with 1:42 left in the third. An interception by sophomore linebacker Bryan Zale led to Chernick’s tiebreaking 8-yard touchdown run.
Prospect responded with a tying 71-yard drive that all-area quarterback Jared Dall capped on a 5-yard touchdown run with 1:24 to play. But a 33-yard kick return by Nick Krams and Chernick’s completions of 13 and 16 yards set up Mazur’s winning kick from 27 yards.
“That was just a chip shot,” Mazur told the Daily Herald’s Jonathan Schoenberg. “It’s the best feeling in the world right now.”
“He’s so young right now, he doesn’t know what pressure is,” Mullaney said. “This was a giant-sized win.”
Mullaney, who was the defensive coordinator of Hersey’s 1987 state championship team, called it the school’s biggest since it beat nationally ranked East St. Louis Sr. 26-6 in the title game. He said it also reminded him of the semifinal win over Naperville North on Duke Tobin’s touchdown pass to Craig Ellinger with 15 seconds left.
“It was big for us to get over the hump and get a look at a possible playoff berth and beat a quality opponent,” Mullaney said the following week. “Not that we haven’t beaten quality opponents this year, but these are a bunch of kids they’ve been playing against since little league and it’s a big confidence boost and a big win for the program.”
The pressure of repeat expectations was having a different effect on Prospect.
“We’ll kind of see where we’re headed from here,” Prospect coach Brent Pearlman said a few days after the loss. “There were probably things happening that week and the past couple of weeks, that maybe if we had looked at real hard we would have seen this coming.”
After winning their last two regular-season games and playoff openers - Hersey 34-0 over St. Patrick and Prospect 35-14 over Glenbard West - they would see each other once again at Prospect.
The Rematch
The Week 7 meeting had the desired effect on both teams going into their playoff rematch.
“After that game some of the guys who didn’t believe did,” said Hersey all-area linebacker Mike Storey. “It was a really big boost. People looked at it as an upset, but we didn’t look at it that way. We’ve got a lot of confidence and we don’t mind if we’re playing as underdogs.”
And Prospect seemed to recapture some of the underdog mentality that characterized the program’s rise from rock bottom to one of the best in the state.
“After the Hersey loss we went home and realized the potential we had,” Dall said. “Ever since then the energy has been incredible. We’re playing every play like it’s our last.”
Nearly 5,000 came to Prospect for another matchup that would go down to the last play. Once again the Knights got on the board first when Gattas’ 10-yard touchdown capped an 80-yard drive to start the game. It stayed that way until the third quarter when Krams tied it for Hersey on a 1-yard run.
“They played great defense all night and we just couldn’t get going,” Pearlman said.
Hersey all-area pick Ryan Baysinger was wreaking havoc again and had 3 sacks and a tackle for loss. Prospect had a drive to the Hersey 10 stall. Hersey suffered the same fate at the Prospect 33 and regular-season hero Mazur delivered a perfect punt that put the Knights 96 yards from the end zone with 6:57 to work with.
“It’s our time right there when it’s on our goal line,” said all-area receiver/defensive back Nick Iovino. “It’s our time to step up.”
Prospect did behind its line of Brian Powers, Chris Bergner, Jim Argentine, Ryan Perry and Bill Mundo. Gattas and Dall had runs of 16 and 15 yards respectively and on a 3rd-and-5, George Whitten made a fingertip grab for 16 yards from Dall. Then came some more adversity in a holding penalty, Baysinger sack and Mike Yost tackle to make it 3rd-and-24 at its 48.
Dall hit a diving Iovino on a fade route for 29 yards.
“I couldn’t believe he caught that,” Dall said. “I just threw it up there for him.”
Two plays later, Prospect was at the Hersey 17 with 19 seconds left. The Knights called a play they hadn’t run in a game all year where Iovino and Scott Sprague crossed paths and Dall hit Iovino in the right corner of the end zone with just 12 seconds left.
“In the huddle we were really confident and said this is our drive right here,” Iovino said. “We said we’ve got six minutes for the rest of our lives right here. It was nice to see everyone excited and pumped. We knew we could do it and we did it.”
Hersey had time for one desperation play before Prospect’s fans stormed the field to celebrate.
“I thought it would be a heck of a football game and it was,” Mullaney said. “Unfortunately it came down to two great plays at the end and they made them.”
The Aftermath
A week later Prospect headed back to Buffalo Grove for the quarterfinals and Act IV of their dramatic two-year series. Multiple sequels rarely deliver in the movies but these did on the football field as the Knights recovered a fumble a yard from their end zone with a minute left and held on for a 17-16 victory.
From there they would take care of Lake Zurich 41-18 in the semifinals and head to Champaign to meet Edwardsville for the second consecutive year. On a bitterly cold and windy Saturday evening in Memorial Stadium, the Knights rolled to their second of three 7A crowns 24-7.
“To know we’ve overcome all the adversity - it’s sweet,” Iovino said.
“Since the middle of the season this team has improved every single game,” Pearlman said. “In this stretch of seven games we’ve gotten better offensively and unbelievable defensively. I’ve never seen a group of kids improve at the rate they did (defensively).”
A stunning regular-season loss and dramatic playoff rematch with Hersey were a big part of it for Prospect.