Montini earns trip back to Champaign
Back to back trumped "Back in Black."
Montini punched its ticket to return to Champaign in defense of its 2009 Class 5A state championship, beating top-seeded host Kaneland 27-14 on Saturday in a 5A semifinal at Bruce Peterson Field in Maple Park.
"To me it's a very special blessing to have great people work so hard and get rewarded," said Montini coach Chris Andriano. "That's just the thing that's great for me, and I hope that we can get it done next week and these kids can experience another state championship."
Montini all-state receiver Jordan Westerkamp caught 10 passes for 186 yards with a 26-yard touchdown catch. His cousin, quarterback Matt Westerkamp, ran for 2 touchdowns for No. 6 seed Montini (11-2).
"It's awesome to see how good we can be when stuff starts to get rolling," Jordan Westerkamp said.
"It's never been done in Montini history, back-go-back, going back to Champaign. We've got another week of preparation to go, and let's win this."
In a game of dueling spread offenses, Montini threw for 276 yards and ran for 129 yards using misdirection against the athletes of Kaneland (12-1).
Knights quarterback Joe Camiliere had 38 of Kaneland's 60 yards rushing before leaving the game after a combo hit by Alex Walters and Ross Ferraro with about six minutes left to play and the Knights down 27-7. Camiliere had his bell run but was OK.
Kaneland's all-state quarterback completed 26 of 43 passes for 293 yards with a 33-yard touchdown strike to Sean Carter.
"They're one of the most diverse teams we played all year," said another all-stater, Montini linebacker Doug Diedrick, who's played weeks with a torn ACL. "Their running game's good, their passing game's even better. Their quarterback went down, which kind of helped us out."
The Broncos didn't need much help. Late in a scoreless first quarter Kaneland's Blake Serpa pinned them at their own 8-yard line with a 43-yard punt.
The Broncos responded with a 15-play scoring drive, converting twice on third down and once on fourth down to set up Anthony Taylor's 25-yard pitch right for a 7-0 lead at 7:27 of the second quarter.
A Kaneland three-and-out and high punt snap gave Montini possession at its own 43-yard line. That turned into points when Matt Westerkamp scored on a 4-yard draw play. Matt Kersten's kick gave Montini a 14-0 halftime lead.
The Broncos led 21-0 at 8:35 of the third quarter when Jordan Westerkamp calmly caught his cousin's 26-yard pass between two converging defenders.
"That catch that he made down there was unbelievable," said Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly. "We double-teamed him and he still went up and made the catch."
"He just ran a fly (pattern), you know?" said Matt Westerkamp, who completed 21 of 29 passes. "And I just threw it up there, him or nobody, and he jumped up and grabbed it. It was awesome."
Kaneland finally answered, marching 84 plays to score on Camiliere's 33-yarder to Sean Carter down the middle, but Montini turned right around to make it 27-7 at 3:35 of the third. A 51-yard pass play to Jordan Westerkamp set up his cousin's 1-yard sneak.
The next score didn't occur until 2:25 left, when Kaneland capitalized on Dan Helm's block of a Montini punt. Serpa, subbing for Camiliere, ran 5 yards around left end to make it 27-14.
Not enough for Back in Black to derail back to back.
"They were the team that we thought they were going to be," Fedderly said. "I can't say anything other than good stuff about them because that's a great team that we just played, and I'm just really proud of how we played till the end."