Montini shows strong effort in humbling Aurora Christian

It was just what Montini needed.

Motivated by what they felt was poor football on several fronts last week, on Saturday the Broncos beat Aurora Christian 41-8 in a Suburban Christian Conference crossover at John L. Duffy Memorial Field in Lombard.

A running clock was deployed after Nick Campanella's 37-yard touchdown run - shrugging off a hit in the backfield, he then cut against the grain on the muddy field - gave Montini a 41-0 lead with 51.3 seconds left in the third quarter.

"For me this is a big game, because (Aurora Christian) took me out of the state championship (playoffs) last year when I was at Driscoll," said Campanella, who ran 11 times for 92 yards.

"This is a big game for all of us. We don't want to lose two games in a row, so we came out, played our hearts out."

Aurora Christian coach Don Beebe saw that.

"Campanella breaks eight tackles probably to score that touchdown," Beebe said. "That's the difference between winning and losing right there. He refused to go down. It's called attitude. We didn't have any, they did."

Montini (3-2) led 21-0 after a quarter. Broncos quarterback Brandon Pechloff was off in St. Francis' 51-31 win on Sept. 19, but Saturday he completed 6 of 7 first-quarter passes with touchdown strikes of 26 and 19 yards to Jordan Westerkamp and a 28-yarder to Anthony Taylor.

Pechloff's sole interception was returned two plays later when Montini linebacker Doug Diedrick made the first of 4 Broncos interceptions.

"Brandon did a great job today," Montini coach Chris Andriano said of his 6-foot-6 quarterback, who completed 11 of 20 passes for 172 yards and 4 touchdowns, with a 26-yard touchdown run in Montini's 20-point third quarter.

"He's got to make better decisions, and he did, starting today," Andriano said.

Montini's primary defensive focus was on speedy tailback Johnny Magee, who came off successive games of 220 and 234 yards rushing. Montini forced the Eagles to the air by holding Magee to 17 yards on 10 carries.

"We felt we were a lot better than we played last week, so we just wanted to come out here and show the conference that we were the best defense," said linebacker Alex Walters.

Aurora Christian (3-2) threw the ball indeed. Sophomore Grayson Roberts - younger brother of record-setter Jordan Roberts of the 2008 Class 4A runner-up - completed 19 of 46 passes for 185 yards and a 5-yard touchdown to Sheldon Magee, Johnny's identical twin.

"They were blitzing different guys. We didn't know who to block," said Sheldon, who caught 9 passes for 74 yards. "But we'll prepare next week. We'll be top-notch. We'll be fine."

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Photo Galleries</h2> <ul class="gallery"> <li><a href="http://football.dailyherald.com/story/?id=324473">Montini vs. Aurora Christian </a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>