Gary Moeller, Luke Zardin help Prospect past Buffalo Grove, into MSL title game

BUFFALO GROVE — Prospect’s Gary Moeller and Luke Zardzin were just too much for Buffalo Grove on Friday.

Moeller threw for five touchdowns while Zardzin had four touchdowns, rushing for two and catching two of Moeller’s touchdown passes, as Prospect rolled over the Bison, 56-33, in Buffalo Grove.

The win gave Prospect (5-0, 5-0) the Mid-Suburban East championship. It also moves the Knights into the first MSL championship game since 1974 when they play at MSL West champion Barrington at 7 p.m. next Friday.

“We are super excited to play somebody big,” Prospect coach Dan DeBoeuf said. “I feel real good about our offense and our defense. You can’t really can’t pick one spot to stop. If you do, we will just do something different.”

Prospect showed how dangerous it can be offensively. The Knights scored a season-high 56 points and had 530 yards of total offense. They led 28-0 at the half, running 40 plays to Buffalo Grove’s 23.

It was all Zardzin early. The Northern Illinois walk-on had 83 of his 154 yards in the first quarter and scored on a 4-yard run to make it 7-0.

“We knew they wanted to limit our big plays,” Zardzin said. “Our offensive line did a great job tonight controlling the tempo.”

That line of Sam Tsagalis, Clayton Kamp, Eric Malinowski, Gary Gilmer, Christo Nicolau and Matt Pankauskas not only did a great job for Zardzin, but they protected Moeller very well too.

With that time, Moeller, was able to pick apart the Bison defense. He threw for a trio of second-quarter touchdowns, two to Tyson Splinter (5 catches, 69 yards) that covered 33 and 20 yards, and then a 4-yarder to Zardzin.

“We knew they started with a light box,” said Moeller, who was 21-of-28 for 258 yards. “We then just pounded inside zone. Then, when they finally responded to that, we knew we could throw it on them.”

Moeller, who verbally committed to Wisconsin for a preferred walk on, threw his fourth touchdown pass of the night to Noah Marx to make it 35-0.

Buffalo Grove showed why it belonged in the East title game. The Bison responded with two quick touchdowns on a 57-yard run by Scott Murray and a 10-yard pass from Ian Luyando to Ayden Anderson to make it 35-13.

That led to a wild and crazy final quarter that had the teams combine for 41 points.

Zardzin had a 4-yard touchdown run and a 38-yard touchdown reception while Matt Raitano scored on a 24-yard burst for the Knights.

Buffalo Grove countered with Luyando (14-of-23, 237 yards) throwing a 27-yard touchdown pass to Pasquale Dellaquila and a 20-yarder to Anderson (8 receptions, 142 yards). Murray (11 carries, 160 yards) added a 64-yard touchdown run in the final 26 seconds.

“Our kids never quit,” said Buffalo Grove coach Jeff Vlk, whose team will play at Palatine next Friday. “That was our message at halftime. We were going to go and play to end, regardless of the score.”