So, their defense is never designed to shut out people. It's a soft cover 2 that is designed to give up yards but limit big plays. Case in point is Barrington Vs Palatine the last two years, really it was the defense that got us the MSL West title the last two years.
Barrington's per game point totals thru the Palatine game each year:
2014: 37, 41, 32, 49, 56, 42, 55 --> 14 (vs Palatine)
2015: 50, 46, 42, 42, 35, 40 --> 24 (vs Palatine)
Alot of good high school teams like to score on big plays and don't react as well when they need to grind out a win.
Now, we have had issues against good running teams (see above note about GW playoff game is 2014...was 7-7 with 2 minutes left in first half and wound up 41-7 GW due to Brodner, as well as last year's Fremd game), but we will have probably more talent and physicality in this year's defense..especially in the defensive backfield.