Barrington was cooking when it needed a big play Friday.

Owen Cook came up with a huge punt and then later had a touchdown-saving tackle on another punt as Barrington knocked off Fremd, which was playing without injured quarterback Johnny O’Brien, 23-7 in Barrington.

“We practice this all week, just the little things,” said Cook, who also plays wide receiver and had two catches for 44 yards.

“I got a good roll on the punt, which helped. It was exactly what we needed in that moment.”

Barrington (6-1, 3-0), which took over sole possession of first place in the MSL West, jumped all over Fremd early as the Broncos powered a pair of touchdowns for a 14-0 lead.

Luke Tepas busted off a 40-yard touchdown run on a read option play. Barrington then followed on its next possession with a 9-yard run by Lamar Osterhues with 2:37 left in the first quarter and it appeared that the Broncos were going to run away with the game early.

Fremd (6-1, 2-1) had other ideas.

The Vikings reached down deep and got some momentum back.

Fremd put together an 80-yard scoring drive. It was highlighted by a 48-yard pass from Will Clark to Ben Riddle and capped by 6-yard touchdown run by Marquan Brewster to cut the lead to 14-7 early in the second quarter.

Fremd then came up with a defensive stop and appeared to have the momentum headed its way.

That’s when Cook dropped a punt inside the 15. The subsequent roll took the ball to the Fremd 1-yard line, where it was downed by Vince Costa.

Two plays later, the Broncos forced Clark out the pocket on a pass attempt. As Clark attempted to get out the end zone, Jackson Taylor knocked him out of bounds for a Barrington safety.

The Broncos then followed with a possession that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Osterhues as Barrington opened a 23-7 lead.

Cook made another huge play as punter on the final play of the half. He made his first tackle of the season at the Barrington 20 to keep the Broncos leading 23-6.

It was all defense for both teams in the second half.

Fremd’s defense kept the Vikings in the game by keeping Barrington off the scoreboard.

Meanwhile the Broncos defense made some plays of its own to stymie Fremd.

Fremd drove to the Barrington 11 early in the fourth quarter. Broncos defensive back Duke Matiyow then picked off a pass at the Barrington 5 to turn the Vikings away from possibly making it a one-score game.

Later in the quarter, Brooks Howard and then Nick Marin also came up with interceptions deep in Fremd territory to stymie the Vikings.

“Any time these two teams play each other, throw out the records because you know it is going to be a fight,” Barrington coach Joe Sanchez said. “That’s what we expected, regardless if No. 8 (Johnny O’Brien) was going to play or not. I am proud of the way we responded. I like how our defense played tonight and how we created takeaways. And our punts were unbelievable.”

Fremd coach Lou Sponsel said he was proud of the way his team played on both sides of the ball without O’Brien.

“We went out and battled and that’s what we said we were going to do,” Sponsel said. “Whatever the final result was to be, we wanted to look each other in the eye and say that we fought for each other. I know this is Barrington, but we have to look at the big picture and keep that in mind and look to playing in November.”