Big fourth quarter sends Montini past St. Viator
Montini overcame a triple-whammy - and a good opponent - to rule the fourth quarter and win the football game.
St. Viator led the Broncos 14-13 through three quarters Saturday. Montini kicked it in with 3 touchdowns to secure a 33-14 CCL/ESCC crossover victory in Lombard.
"Offensively, we had to pick it up. Good blocks, good reads. Eventually it worked for us," said Montini quarterback Deontay Bell, who ran for 196 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Bell's 27- and 2-yard touchdown runs on successive fourth-quarter drives lifted the Broncos over St. Viator.
The other huge part of Montini's ground game, C.J. Bufkin, ran for 150 yards and capped the scoring on a 5-yard run behind linemen Colin Baker and Dagen Miller.
"Winning going into the fourth quarter was, I thought, a good statement by our guys, first of all, that we play hard and we were able to hang with them and hold the lead there," said St. Viator coach Dave Archibald, his Lions now 3-2.
"The fourth quarter, they wore us out in some ways. They're a great football team and we weren't able to get the stops we were earlier in the game," he said.
St. Viator and Montini (4-1) faced the letdown of Friday's weather postponement. Montini also came off a huge Week 4 win over St. Rita, plus every coach's least-favorite thing - homecoming distractions.
"I don't think we played our best, but I certainly believe a lot of that had to do with them, and we give them a lot of credit," said Montini coach Mike Bukovsky.
St. Viator struck first after Mike Nuelle recovered a Broncos fumble. Lucas Barisas scored on a 5-yard misdirection play, though Montini tied 7-7 late in the first quarter on Bell's first touchdown run, a 1-yard veer inside receiver Jalen McBride's kickout block.
Montini caught a break when a hard rush by St. Viator's Jack Ziebka forced a 6-yard punt, but St. Viator touched the live ball and Montini's Enzo May recovered.
Eleven plays later Montini was fourth-and-6 at St. Viator's 14-yard line. Bukovsky took two timeouts with 28.5 seconds left in the half deciding whether to try a field goal or go for it. He chose correctly when Bufkin motioned right and Bell passed left to Paul Flicek dragging the end zone for a 13-7 halftime lead.
Undeterred, St. Viator went up 14-13 with 42.7 seconds left in the third quarter. P.J. Scales' 19-yard reverse led to Mahoney's 1-yard run inside right tackle Mark Crouse.
"We just felt like if we could keep their offense off the field, if we could just kind of drive, eat up the clock and punch it in a couple times we'd be good. Unfortunately the final score didn't really reflect on the game too much," said Mahoney, who ran for 83 yards.
Montini's three unanswered fourth-quarter scores and Devin Hoovel's interception, after Trevor Swier's heavy rush, let Montini's lessons go down easier.
"We learned that we need to finish every single play and then even when things aren't going well we have to finish the game," Bufkin said.