Senior Owen Cook isn’t Barrington’s backup quarterback, but he certainly looked the part Saturday afternoon in Barrington’s 42-21 victory over Palatine — as the Broncos’ starting punter.

Barrington and visiting Palatine were tied 14-14 when Barrington faced a fourth-and-8 from its 38-yard line in front of its homecoming football crowd in July-esque conditions.

Cook, also a wide receiver, got in position to field a long snap for an apparent punt.

His right foot never touched the ball.

Cook fired a 9-yard strike to a wide-open Thomas Piatek.

First down, Barrington.

“My eyes got really wide,” Cook said of his reaction to hearing the fake-punt call after the Mid-Suburban League West opener for both teams. “We’d been practicing that play for a while, and I was excited to try it in a game.

“(Piatek),” he added, “was exactly where he needed to be. Big moment for us.”

The Broncos then ran the ball 11 straight times, culminating in a 1-yard touchdown run by senior quarterback Luke Tepas with 17 seconds left in the first half.

The hosts, who led 21-14 at halftime, outscored the reigning MSL West champion Pirates 28-7 after the chicanery.

“Not my idea,” said Broncos coach Joe Sanchez. “One of my assistants called the fake punt. Let’s just leave it at that.”

“It was the turning point of the game,” said Palatine coach Corey Olson. “We were right there, in the game, before the fake punt.”

Barrington (4-1, 1-0) needed only 45 seconds at the outset of the second half to stretch its lead to 28-14. Sophomore running back Lamar Osterhues sprinted 41 yards for a TD on the third play after halftime.

Each of Saturday’s nine TDs came via a rush. Tepas found the end zone on a pair of 1-yard bursts and a 13-yard, third-quarter gallop; Osterhues’ other scoring run covered 5 yards; Broncos senior running back Cameron Massillo capped the day’s scoring — one play after Broncos senior linebacker Jett Kohanzo’s interception — with a 1-yard TD run 58 seconds shy of the fourth quarter.

Palatine (2-3, 0-1) got 1- and 23-yard TD runs from senior quarterback Will Santiago and a 5-yard TD run from junior running back Ray Gaspard.

“I’m proud of my kids and my coaches,” Sanchez said. “It was a long week, waiting to play on Saturday. But I’ll play football any day, in the sunshine or on a Friday night. I don’t want to find out what it feels like to not get to do what I do during the football season.”

Barrington senior offensive/defensive lineman and Northwestern-bound Owen Fors made his presence felt on both sides of the ball, creating boulevard-wide holes for the Broncos’ running attack and piercing blocking schemes to make Santiago operate often out of the pocket.

“Saturday-afternoon homecoming game, 85 degrees, sunshine, conference game … we were ready for this, so ready, so juiced up,” said the 6-foot-4, 305-pound Fors, whose quarterback pressure paved the way for a combo sack from sophomore lineman Jacob Patno and senior lineman Charlie Ploder in the third quarter.

“This game,” he added, “came down to our fake punt, which shifted the momentum. That was big for us.”

Pirates senior wideout/safety Kole Fager caught seven balls for 113 yards before suffering what appeared to be a serious shoulder injury at the end of Kohanzo’s interception return. He had to sit out the fourth quarter.

“Fager,” Sanchez said, “is a difference-maker. Everybody knew where the ball would likely go on third downs, and he still made the catches.”

Barrington junior wide receiver Austin Coles came down with all four of his receptions in the second half.

“All you can say is Barrington did a great job, played better than we did,” said Olson, whose Pirates gained 314 total yards to Barrington’s 377. “We fought. We battled. Who knows? Had Barrington not succeeded on that fake punt, the game could have continued to be a back-and-forth one the rest of the way.”

Among Saturday’s other highlights: Barrington senior linebacker Jaxson Werner recovered a Palatine onside kick after Palatine cut Barrington’s lead to 28-21 at 5:15 of the third quarter; Palatine’s Gus Tashima made a stop 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage; Barrington senior linebacker Jackson Taylor dropped a ball carrier on the line of scrimmage and pressured QB Santiago several times; Palatine senior defensive lineman Cam Bickel had a sack; and Broncos senior kicker John Wormley made 6 extra points and thumped kickoffs that resulted in 7 touchbacks.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250927/prep-football/cook-sparks-barrington-to-msl-west-victory-against-palatine/