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Millikan, Montini at their best

Montini junior wide receiver Tyler Millikan entered Saturday's Class 5A state semifinal football showdown against undefeated Geneseo with three touchdowns for the entire season.

After senior Mason Weissenhofer kicked a 32-yard field goal on Broncos' opening drive, Millikan caught 3 TD passes from senior quarterback Chuck Norgle on the next three possessions.

"I doubled my touchdowns in the first half for the whole season. It's just crazy how it worked out like that," Millikan said.

The Broncos scored early and often as everything clicked during an improbable one-sided 52-15 victory in Lombard that puts them in the state title game for the sixth consecutive year.

Norgle threw for 320 yards and 4 TDs. The Broncos (10-3) amassed 499 total yards and never punted.

"Every phase of the game, from special teams to offense, defense, we outplayed them. We played our best game today," Millikan said.

"I didn't expect anything like this. I just come out every game hoping to have my best game and hope the team has its best game. That's it. It just so happened to be my day."

Montini will meet the lower bracket's No. 1 seed, Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin (13-0), in a rematch of the 2013 Class 5A final, a 38-28 Montini loss.

"We'll be ready. It's going to be a great game," Montini coach Chris Andriano said. "We've got to be able to combine all of the emotions and smart football that we need to be able to beat a good football team."

Millikan caught his first two TDs on slant routes of 8 yards after Patrick Howard's fumble recovery at the 30-yard line and 5 yards with 9:36 left until halftime.

The third TD was an 84-yard bomb to a wide-open Millikan just beyond midfield after the safety tripped.

"I gave him a little inside move and I think he turned his hips and tried to turn back outside and he fell," Millikan said. "I was not about the get caught on that (catch). I was not going to let that happen."

"I was just (saying), 'Don't overthrow it. Don't overthrow it,' " Norgle said. "We did not expect this. We came out and turned it up a notch."

Norgle was 22-of-30 passing. He had one streak of 15 consecutive completions for 258 yards that included all four TD connections.

"For Chuck it was a great day. For Tyler he had his best day," Andriano said. "You don't just beat a team like Geneseo like that. This is one of the storied programs in Illinois."

Millikan caught 6 passes for 113 yards. Indiana-bound Leon Thornton III had 8 receptions for 162 yards, including a 29-yard TD catch 32.4 seconds before halftime after an earlier end-zone catch was out of bounds and another end-zone pass to him was knocked away.

Running back Prince Walker added his team-best 19th TD in the third quarter. Reserves Justin Blake and Dylan Maher also had rushing TDs.

The 84-yard TD pass, 3 yards shy of Norgle's longest completion for 2014, came right after the Maple Leafs' storied ground attack marched 66 yards on 7 carries to close to 17-7.

Geneseo (12-1) never again got closer than the Montini 42-yard line again until its last-minute drive. The second half began with two three-and-outs and a lost fumble recovered by Terrell Johnson.

"I thought the big thing was they scored right after we scored. We couldn't get a stop," Geneseo coach Larry Johnsen Jr. said. "Their passing game is good, but they have great athletes. We knew that we had to get them into our (ball-control) style and we just couldn't do that. We had to play their style and it just didn't work out for us."

Everything has worked out for the Broncos since a 31-7 loss at Class 6A semifinalist St. Francis in Week 7. In the six games since they have scored at least 23 points and the defense has allowed no more than 2 touchdowns.

"It's a great feeling. We want to be able to have another shot at Sacred Heart. That's been our goal the whole season," senior defensive end and captain Eric Kibbey said.

"We've been working up towards this game all season. It's going to be the toughest game we've played. We've got to leave it all on the field. We went into halftime winning (21-14 in 2013), but they had all of the momentum. We came out flat in the second half. It's just kind of left a bad taste in our mouths so I want a second chance for us to get redemption, go out with a win."

Images: Geneseo at Montini playoff football

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