Marian stuns Montini

This is how legends begin.

Trailing Montini 15-14 with 5:05 left in Saturday's Class 5A second-round football game, quarterback Jon Budmayr drove Marian Central 80 yards for the go-ahead touchdown pass to Andrew Stochl and 2-point conversion to Jordan Peart.

Completing 3 of 5 passes for only 13 yards in a scoreless first half, Budmayr finished 23 of 31 for 245 yards and 2 touchdowns in No. 7 seed Marian's 29-15 win over No. 2 Montini at Duffy Memorial Field in Lombard.

"Just stay calm and keep playing," was how Budmayr, a junior with Wisconsin and Northwestern scholarship offers, rallied under pressure.

"That's all you've got to do, is just keep playing football. That's why it's such a fun game, it's never over until that horn goes off."

Asked if Marian Central (9-2) would have had much hope without Budmayr, who missed four games with a pulled hamstring, including Montini's 33-0 win in Week 7, coach Ed Brucker laughed.

"Oh, no. No. No," he said. "He brings a lot of confidence in the huddle, for one thing. They know that we can get it done. He's been a leader for two and a half years now. He's just got that charisma in the huddle most guys don't."

It showed when, after Montini (9-2) held Marian to three first-half possessions and 2 first downs, Budmayr went 7 of 7 to start an 80-yard, third-quarter scoring drive. Doug Simpson's 3-yard run and Sean Cwynar's kick put the Hurricanes up 7-0.

Montini fumbled the ball right back. Marian capitalized on Budmayr's 6-yard slant to Peart for a 14-0 lead at 4:16 of the third quarter.

Montini enjoyed the same pattern to take its 15-14 lead.

Broncos quarterback Tom DiCristina capped an 80-yard drive with his 8-yard scoring run, then passed to Johnny Borsellino for the conversion.

Joe Florio stripped the ball from a Marian receiver and Borsellino recovered.

Mixing passes with runs by Dex Jones, who had 19 carries for 100 yards, Montini scored when DiCristina fumbled at the Marian 2 and Borsellino plucked it in the end zone. With 5:04 left Sean Cahill's kick had Montini up 15-14.

"Someone came in, punched it from behind," Borsellino said. "I saw the ball and it one-hopped right into my hands. It was a big play."

Budmayr reserved the biggest play, recapturing the lead on his 10-yard touchdown pass to Andrew Stochl.

Brett Leahy's interception snuffed any Broncos rally. Simpson's 4-yard touchdown run sent defending Class 5A runner-up Marian into the quarterfinals against former Driscoll coach Tim Racki's Nazareth Roadrunners.

It also kept Montini coach Chris Andriano a win shy of No. 200 in his Hall of Fame career.

"When you play as well as we did early, hopes are really high for one of those kind of years. It ended too soon," he said.

"I'm really proud of our seniors, a great group of kids. They worked extremely hard for us. Montini football will always be proud of them."