Montini bounces back

Montini licked the wounds of a painful loss to Marian Central all week in practice.

Come Friday, the Broncos were ready to pounce.

Previously unbeaten Aurora Christian was the unfortunate victim. Montini scored touchdowns on all seven possessions of the first half in a 55-14 rout in Lombard.

"Last week, it hurt us bad," said Montini's Joe Borsellino, who had 152 yards of total offense and scored 4 touchdowns. "We knew we had to come out explosive tonight."

Borsellino was a big part of that big-play offense.

Running the "Joecat" offense on Montini's first drive, he threw a 20-yard pass to a leaping Jordan Westerkamp and took a keeper 20 yards to set up his 3-yard touchdown run. Borsellino grabbed a short pass across the middle from Mark Gorogianis on Montini's next possession for a 47-yard score and later took in touchdown runs of 6 and 2 yards.

"The kid is a football player," Montini coach Chris Andriano said. "He could start for us on defense."

Montini (3-2) broke out the "Joecat" two weeks ago to help beat Marmion, but this was the first time the Broncos started a game with it. Borsellino is hoping it isn't the last.

"We had talked about it before the game that we were going to run that, and I was glad. I want to do that more often," Borsellino said. "We threw out of it, we ran it and they didn't know what to do with it."

"I think everything they did caught us by surprise," Aurora Christian coach Don Beebe observed.

Beebe was more puzzled by his offense's productivity, or lack thereof.

An offense that scored over 45 points per game in four wins didn't cross midfield until midway through the second quarter, when the game was already out of hand at 34-0.

Eagles receivers dropped six passes in the first half, none bigger than a deep ball that looked like it could have gone for a touchdown with the score still 13-0.

"I'm not sure what was wrong with our wide receivers tonight," Beebe said. "We looked like a deer in the headlights."

Montini's offense hummed with an efficiency not always seen yet this year.

The Broncos only needed to run three third-down plays in seven first-half touchdown drives. Gorogianis, who could move back to receiver next week with the expected return of starter John Rhode, completed 13 of 16 passes for 233 yards with 3 throwing touchdowns and a running score. Westerkamp caught a 3-yard touchdown pass and also hauled in a 43-yard pass to set up Gorogianis' touchdown keeper.

Anthony Taylor also broke several tackles en route to a 49-yard score. It was 27-0 after a quarter, 48-7 by halftime.

"I don't think teams really know how fast we are," Andriano said. "It was hard to show those first four games because of the people we play, but we still show signs of still having that fast-strike potential."

Anthony Maddie completed 15 of 34 passes for 179 yards and a touchdown pass to Ryan Suttle for Aurora Christian (4-1). He also ran for 79 yards. Brandon Mayes scored on a 15-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.