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St. Rita defeats Montini

Montini was welcomed to the Chicago Catholic Conference Friday night, and the welcoming was cold.

In addition to fighting the wind and rain, the Broncos had an uphill battle at St. Rita, resulting in a 21-0 loss.

"It's tough to swallow when you know you're good and someone comes along that's better," Montini coach Chris Andriano said.

After Montini's opening drive took them deep in to St. Rita territory without resulting in any points, the Mustangs responded with 14 unanswered points of their own. The bulk of the weight was put on St. Rita running back Tyre Lee who scored the first touchdown of the game.

With constant rain and wind the Montini passing game was stressed. While senior quarterback Chuck Norgle engineered a few drives, none resulted in points. Despite open wide receivers a number of passes slipped to the ground.

Andriano said the rain wasn't the offense's biggest problem. Instead it was execution. After St. Rita quarterback CJ Weydeman took an option keeper to the end zone to stretch the lead to 21, a drive Andriano called the statement of the game, the Broncos were forced into a nearly pass only offense.

Even with the 3 touchdowns allowed, Andriano said he thought his defense hung tight. However, stopping Lee was no small order.

"He's tough," Andriano said of Lee. "He can slide, too, you know. He can run it hard, but he can slide and he's got the edge speed to make you miss."

With conference play under way for the Broncos, Andriano said he hopes their early-season tests help in the long run. Andriano said he doesn't expect any team in conference to give them as hard a time as their first three opponents, Maine South, East St. Louis and St. Rita.

Even with the difficult conditions, Norgle and the Montini offense did show signs of life. They were able to engineer three drives deep in to St. Rita territory, one resulting in a missed field goal, the second a turnover on downs and the third with time expiring in the game.

"We got to go over the film. We got to see where we are being inconsistent and game plan week by week for the conference," Andriano said.

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