Brother Rice one step closer to playoffs with 24-7 win over Montini

CHICAGO — Brother Rice’s game against Montini on Friday night might’ve been a Week 8 matchup, but for the Crusaders, Friday night was the start of the playoffs.

The Crusaders entered Friday at 3-4, needing to win their remaining two regular season games in order to guarantee itself a spot in the playoffs a week after dropping a close game to Nazareth. Brother Rice started its playoff run on the right note, with running back Randall Nauden shining offensively while the defense held the Broncos in a 24-7 win.

“It’s huge,” Nauden said. “Being able to bounce back from last week and keep the playoffs going is really huge for us.”

Nauden and the Brother Rice (4-4) offense showed playoff urgency on its first drive. The Crusaders moved the ball up to the middle of the field and then Nauden broke out, scoring on a 54-yard run to give his team a 7-0 lead with 7:00 left in the first quarter.

Brother Rice kept the pressure on its next possession, driving to the Montini 11-yard line before settling for a 36-yard field goal to make it 10-0 with 1:14 left in the first quarter and made it a 17-7 lead with 2:36 left in the second quarter when Nauden rushed in for a 14-yard run.

The Crusaders knew they would need to rely on the run in such an important game and Nauden was honored to earn his coaches’ confidence to pick the needed yardage.

“It was built over time, through hard work and dedication,” Nauden said. “It’s really good to know that they do trust me in picking up that first down, just boosting my confidence even more and being to tell myself I will get this instead of doubting myself.”

Nauden kept picking up yardage and the Crusaders scored on a 1-yard run from quarterback Marcus Brown to make it a 24-7 game with 4:28 left in the game. Nauden finished with 246 rushing yards on 34 carries. Brown completed two of his three passes for 15 yards while Ryan Hartz completed three of his eight attempts for 24 yards.

“It’s huge. Being able to bounce back from last week and keep the playoffs going is really huge for us.”

—  Randall Nauden, Brother Rice running back

The running back credited the defense’s strong second half to the offense’s success. The Broncos had three 3-and-outs in the second half and never gained momentum.

“We’re able to go out there and relax, not feel pressure to score,” Nauden said. “So when the defense comes up clutch and gets three-and-outs multiple times, it gives the offense a boost of confidence to be able to come out, relax and score, not have that weight on our shoulders about scoring.”

Montini (5-3) looked like it was going to make it a close game at the end of the first quarter when Alex Marre scored on a 4-yard run as time expired to make it a 10-7 Brother Rice lead. Marre finished the game 93 rushing yards and quarterback Gaetano Carbonara completed 12 of his 21 passes for 153 yards.

But the Broncos failed to get much momentum after their lone score because of seven penalties for 40 yards.

“We kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Montini coach Michael Bukovsky said. “We can make big plays and we did make big plays, we had some very good positive plays, but we don’t follow up and then we make a mistake.”

Montini will end the regular season trying to earn a share of the CCL/ESCC White crown with St. Laurence on Friday while the Crusaders will host St. Rita (5-3).

Nauden and Brother Rice know they need to treat their regular-season rivalry game like they did Friday night: just another playoff game.

“It’s really huge for us to get that momentum going into next week with a bigger and better opponent,” Nauden said. “We just have to treat it like this game and focus up, play like we’re playing in the playoffs.”