Montini picks off Marmion
Two interceptions, one in the end zone to deny an opponent just before halftime, can make a young man feel pretty good.
"It felt like I was on top of the world," Montini sophomore cornerback Mitch West said.
Montini's 27-14 victory over Marmion, Friday at Duffy Memorial Stadium in Lombard, put the Broncos on top of the Chicago Catholic League Green Division. Montini (6-3, 3-1) will share the title with the winner of Saturday's game between St. Francis and Fenwick.
Five-time state championship coach Chris Andriano naturally looks to conquer a bigger world.
"That's great, I'm happy for the kids," he said. "But you know us, there's only one goal. So we'll get ready for the playoffs."
Montini took Marmion's best shot and answered. On the Cadets' first possession they worked Wing-T magic downfield 85 yards, Nate Traxler, Jordan Glasgow and Lucas Warren sharing carries until the 235-pound Warren bulled in from a yard out. Connor Hoeft's kick had the Cadets up 7-0 at 8:52 of the first quarter.
Marmion (6-3, 2-2) didn't score again until 5:54 remained in the game, on quarterback John Tate's 5-yard pass to Traxler out of a bunch set to end a drive longer than 10 minutes.
"I think continually throughout the end of the first half, without the mistakes that we had at the end of our drives and the penalties that we had, I think that we could have scored a lot of points against their defense. But they're a very good team and they caused us to make those mistakes," said Glasgow, who led Marmion with 93 of its 271 yards rushing.
Montini got on track when quarterback Chuck Norgle completed passes of 16 and 40 yards to set up Prince Walker's 29-yard bounce around left end to tie 7-7 at 4:12 of the first quarter.
The Broncos scored 2 more unanswered touchdowns in the second quarter. Leon Thornton III ran the Wildcat from 9 yards out and West's first interception got the ball right back. Montini capitalized on Walker's 1-yard dive behind fullback John Embrey.
"We just knew we had to bring our A-game like we always do, and we did it," said Walker, who ran for 70 yards.
West's second interception, in Montini's end zone with 27.3 seconds left in the first half, ended a 13-play, 55-yard Cadets drive.
The Cadets looked to regain momentum quickly the third quarter when a penalty negated a pass play into Montini turf. Montini's Mason Weissenhofer followed with a 39-yard field goal, and sandwiched Traxler's touchdown grab with 27-yarder that basically ended it.
"We didn't get in any rhythm," Marmion coach Dan Thorpe said, "and in big games when you lose the penalty category and the turnovers category you're going to get beat. We knew we had to get defensive stops. We didn't get any."