Montini stops Spartans

What can 1-yard mean in a 27-point football game?

Friday night at Montini it actually meant quite a bit. After the host Broncos scored touchdowns on their first three possessions, they led visiting St. Francis by 14 points late in the first half. But the Spartans, who entered the game off an impressive win over Driscoll last week, were driving deep into Broncos territory with hopes of closing to within one score.

That's when St. Francis fullback Stan Bobowski took a hand-off on fourth-and-2 from the Montini 26-yard line. The bruising runner was gang-tackled by the Montini defense and stopped at the 25, 1 yard shy of keeping the St. Francis drive alive.

Not only did Montini escape the drive with its 14-point lead intact, but the Broncos (4-0, 2-0) countered with a quick scoring drive to close the half with a 28-7 lead following a 48-yard TD pass from Tom DiCristina to Jeff Spokas with 2:25 left in the half. The hosts went on to a 41-21 victory from there, sending the homecoming crowd home happy.

"Momentum can change a game like this," Montini coach Chris Andriano said. "If they get a score there things can change just like that."

Instead it was the Spartans (3-1, 1-1) who learned hard lessons about how quickly things can change. With Mark Kachmer and Bobowski combining to run for 271 yards, the Spartans proved they could move the ball against Montini.

But while DiCristina led his team to 3 straight scores to open the game and finished with 4 TD passes and 1 rushing score, St. Francis was hurt by a pair of interceptions that ended scoring chances, the stop on fourth down, and also a pair of costly fumbles while Kachmer lined up at quarterback in the shotgun formation.

"Montini controlled our defense and we misexecuted on offense when we had chances," St. Francis coach Greg Purnell said. "Montini deserves a lot of credit. They're a real quick team. But you've got to play defense in this league."

DiCristina completed 10 of 12 passes in the first half for 3 scores and 183 yards. On the night he went 12 for 19 for 226 yards while accounting for four scores.

"It really did set the tone for us," DiCristina said of the 21-point first quarter. "We watched film and worked real hard all week in practice. I thank our coaches for this one. They pushed us."

Kachmer had a 4-yard TD in the first half and broke off a 65-yard score in the second half while gaining 178 yards on 26 carries for the Spartans.