Montini beats Mt. Carmel in final seconds

Usually by Week 8 of the football season, Mt. Carmel and Montini are making plans for home playoff games and beginning to plot potential championship parade routes.

There was a different vibe, though, when the 4-3 teams squared off in Lombard on Friday night as doing whatever it takes to simply secure playoff qualification was the primary goal for both. Montini will go into the final week of the regular season knowing it probably already has secured a playoff berth after the Broncos (5-3) posted a scintillating, last-minute 30-26 victory in a Chicago Catholic League crossover contest.

"The kids have been playing hard, getting better week by week," said Montini coach Chris Andriano. "We had a rough stretch, but we lost to three really good football teams. We played against a great football team tonight and competed; that was the theme this week - compete."

Montini's game-winning score came with 21 seconds left when quarterback Matt Morrissey, known more for his arm than his legs, scrambled 8 yards to the end zone to cap an 11-play, 75-yard drive.

"I was looking back side, the line did a great job protecting, but Mt. Carmel had great defense on the play," Morrissey said. "I just took off and took it in."

"It looked like I was chasing him," was Andriano's perspective on the play. "He's never run that fast."

The key play on the drive came on the snap before Morrissey's run when Andriano eschewed a power run on fourth-and-1 from the Mt. Carmel 30 for a play-action pass in which Nick Orlando found Mitch West between two defenders for 22 yards and a pivotal first down.

"At that point they were loading the box and it's difficult to run the ball then," Andriano said. "Sometimes you have to take some risks and it paid off."

The last-gasp touchdown claimed victory from the jaws of what would have certainly been a very disheartening defeat. The Broncos led 23-7 going into the fourth quarter, but the Caravan (4-4) struck for three scores in less than six minutes - 11- and 38-yard TD catches by Phazione McClurge, the second on a fourth-and-18 play, sandwiched around Dan Trudeau's 1-yard plunge - to stun the Broncos and take a 26-23 lead.

Mt. Carmel answered West's 10-yard run with Aristotle Nakos' 11-yard scoring scamper for a 7-6 lead after one quarter before Montini's Michael Cooney booted a 40-yard field goal to give the Broncos a 9-7 halftime lead. Jake Karczewski scored on 1- and 2-yard runs in the third quarter, the second after West's interception, to give the Broncos what appeared for a time to be an ill-fated 16-point lead.

Andriano coached the game with a heavy heart after his mother, Dorothy, passed away earlier in the week, but he said there was no way he wouldn't be on the sidelines for the game.

"Football is a big part of our family, and she was here all the time, too," he said. "She'd never want me to miss football."