St. Francis stuns Montini
Anytime football players, cheerleaders, students and band members create a swarming mosh pit of joy on a football field, it's safe to say they liked what happened.
What happened was host St. Francis dominating rival Montini 31-7 Friday night in a Chicago Catholic Green clash, marking the first time since 2008 that the Spartans came out on top against the Broncos.
It was an impressive and highly emotional team effort for St. Francis (5-2, 1-1), but quarterback Clint Bobowski stood out by having a hand in all four Spartans touchdowns and 400 of the 428 total yards the team piled up for the night.
In the meantime the St. Francis defense, fresh off two straight weeks of pitching shutouts, stopped the Broncos at every turn. The Spartans picked off four Montini passes and also stuffed quarterback Chuck Norgle for no gain on a critical fourth-and-inches play midway through the third quarter.
Bobowski ran for two touchdowns while registering 134 yards in 26 carries, and he tossed two touchdown passes on his way to completing 16 of 25 for 266 yards.
"You can really see the heart behind Clint Bobowski. He was not going to be denied tonight," St. Francis coach Mike Fitzgerald said.
Bobowski wasn't going to be denied on the quarterback keeper right up the middle, which is where the 6-foot, 185-pound senior attacked all night.
"We were just going to ram it right down their throats," Bobowski said.
"The offensive line did a fantastic job, the lanes were huge and easy to run through. Passing, I had all day to throw."
Before he wore out the Broncos with his feet, Bobowski shared the spotlight with wideout Michael Shaw, who hauled down a 70-yard touchdown bomb in the first quarter for a 7-0 lead.
Shaw also grabbed a 40-yard toss with a defender all over him to set up the Spartans' second score, a 5-yard Bobowski keeper with 9:27 left in the half.
Montini (4-3, 1-1) responded with its most scintillating play of the night, an 81-yard touchdown pass from Norgle to Justin Blake just as a blitzing Spartans defense flattened Norgle.
When Jack Ahern thwarted a Montini drive by picking off a pass inside the Spartans' 25-yard line, Bobowski engineered a 75-yard scoring drive that he finished with a 16-yard scoring strike under pressure to Tom Petrando for a 21-7 lead with 36 seconds left in the half.
Montini threatened in the final seconds, but the Broncos' frustration was on full display when a long pass to Tyler Millikan came up 3 yards short of a touchdown as time expired.
St. Francis kept control in the second half, fueled emotionally when defensive lineman Pasquale Quinn Calcagno stopped Norgle on his quarterback sneak on a key fourth-and-short play.
"Our defensive line works hard on every play, and I have to give my teammates credit," Calcagno said. "I get a lot of the credit, but Michael Riley and nose guard Thomas Brundage work just as hard, maybe even harder."
After Trevor Jungles hit a 24-yard field goal for St. Francis in the third quarter, Bobowski put the finishes touches on this Spartans masterpiece with a 1-yard plunge with six minutes left in the game.
Montini coach Chris Andriano knew his team had run into a buzzsaw.
"They were extremely motivated, and you could see the passion and emotion they had, and I thought that carried their team a long way tonight," Andriano said of the Spartans' spirited effort.
"They used every avenue of emotion that they could gain to their advantage and really outplayed us in all phases of the game," Andriano added.
Fitzgerald felt the game was won up front, where both of his lines played aggressive and smart football.
"Our offensive line and offensive line coach did an unbelievable job in terms of preparing, and the kids buy into the work," Fitzgerald said.
"We preached all week to take care of the football and eliminate the big play for them, and they got us on one big play, but other than that our kids played great and with a lot of passion."