Montini rolling at just the right time
Montini is spending the postseason making a mockery of the regular season.
The Broncos, who had just enough wins to qualify for the postseason, won their third consecutive game - a feat they accomplished for the first time in 2009 - with Saturday's 31-17 victory at Sycamore in the Class 5A quarterfinals.
The 12th-seeded Broncos (8-4) will host No. 7 Woodstock next week in the semifinals.
"We've struggled. Believe me," Montini coach Chris Andriano said. "We lost some close games, games I didn't think we should have lost. But our kids have just continued to hang tough, and the result is if you believe in yourself you move on.
"We're playing our best football right now."
Montini saved its best football for the second half. After Sycamore running back Marckie Hayes ran for 114 first-half yards, including a 54-yard touchdown on the Spartans' first play from scrimmage, the Broncos went away from their base defense. It was a smart adjustment.
"We couldn't stay in that very much the whole day," Andriano said. "So we got more aggressive with our linebackers and our defensive ends and we were bringing safeties in. We were just a lot more aggressive at the line of scrimmage trying to make sure he didn't have any room because he's too elusive. We had to make sure we kept the ball out of his hands and make them throw the ball. When we got the lead it kind of played out that way."
The Broncos held Hayes, who entered the game with a hip pointer, to just 9 yards in the second half. They sacked Sycamore quarterbacks Trevor Mathey and Ryan Bartels 5 times.
"We just didn't get anything going offensively," Sycamore coach Joe Ryan said.
Meanwhile, the Montini offense kept rolling, with quarterback Brandon Pechloff hitting senior receiver Christian Westerkamp for touchdown passes of 11 and 25 yards. He finished 17-of-31 passing for 211 yards and 3 TDs.
Backs Ryan Gorrell and Nick Campanella combined for 140 tough yards on the ground.
"They really couldn't stop us," Pechloff said. "From what I could tell they couldn't control our running game, they couldn't control our passing game. We made a couple of mistakes, but everyone just stepped up when we needed to."
Most importantly Pechloff and the Broncos protected the ball, never throwing an interception or losing a fumble.
"His game has come another level higher, and because of that the whole team is better," Andriano said of his senior QB.
It's coming at the perfect time for Montini.