Rhode, Montini knock off Wheaton Academy
Montini quarterback John Rhode played a little less than a half, but he made the most of the snaps he received.
Rhode completed 18 of 24 passes for 339 yards and seven touchdown passes as the Broncos stampeded to a 54-6 win over Wheaton Academy Friday night.
“He did a very nice job for us tonight,” Montini coach Chris Andriano said. “Our passing game is really coming along and he was able to get some good reps in. This is the best group of receivers we have ever had here. We need to spread the ball around to them all.”
Rhode spread the ball around as he completed passes to five receivers, and all five of those receivers caught at least one touchdown pass. Jordan Westerkamp received the majority of the work; he finished with 7 catches for 108 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Westerkamp, committed to play football at Nebraska, talked about all the weapons the Broncos (7-2, 4-1 Suburban Christian Conference Blue Division) have on offense.
“We can attack a defense in a lot of different ways,” Westerkamp said. “We have a bunch of athletes who all bring different things to the table. Teams cannot just single one of us out because we have other playmakers waiting to step up and make a play. We are really clicking right now as a team, and I cannot wait to see who we get to play in the first round of the playoffs.”
It wasn’t just the offense that excelled Friday night. Montini’s defense set the tone early. Senior defensive back Joe Cione intercepted 2 passes in the first minute of the game, setting up two fast touchdowns for the offense. Montini scored 28 points in the first five minutes of the game and the Broncos led 38-0 at the end of the first quarter.
“The defense did an excellent job as they made some plays very early on that we were able to capitalize on,” Andriano said.
The Warriors (1-7, 0-5) played with a lot of things on their minds because coach Ben Wilson is preparing for surgery to remove a tumor from his brain Monday, but the Warriors pulled together as a team in a tough time.
“That really made us stronger knowing what coach has been going through,” senior quarterback Drew Decker said. “We played as hard as we could for him, but we don’t have the speed that Montini has and that got us into trouble.”