Israel Abrams throws for 5 TDs, Montini gets back on track with blowout of Marmion

LOMBARD – A cool Friday night in Lombard featured two CCL/ESCC teams with different purposes.

Montini, which held its homecoming, looked to break a two-game losing streak. Marmion wanted to improve on what’s already been a better season from a year ago.

With less room for error, the Broncos played like it and delivered their fans a night to remember in a 55-19 win.

“We knew we wanted to put some fire out there on the field, and we did,” Montini coach Mike Bukovsky said. “We really ran the ball well tonight. We threw the ball. So I think we’re ready now for the back half of the schedule.”

Montini (3-2) scored on the game’s first possession and then couldn’t stop. It helped to have short fields in the first half set up by a Matteo Barrett fumble recovery and both an interception and blocked punt from Vince Irion. All of this happened before Marmion (3-2) could get a punt away cleanly.

Israel Abrams threw for 239 yards and five touchdowns on 10-of-14 passing, all in the first half. His first two scores came on passes of 23 and 14 yards, respectively, to CJ Harkins.

Abrams also was credited with touchdown throws of 29 yards to Nico Castaldo, 61 yards to a moving and grooving JoJo James and 41 yards right before halftime to homecoming king Santino Florio.

Add a Jeremiah Peterson 5-yard touchdown run, and the halftime fireworks spectacular might as well have celebrated the Broncos’ 41-7 lead at that point as much as homecoming.

“We expect this every week, nothing less every week,” Abrams said. “We work hard, (watch) lots of film. Hours, hours, hours of film, hours of game planning. We expected no less.”

Despite the loss the Cadets had some big plays of their own. Roy Magana threw a fourth-down touchdown pass from 40 yards out to Colin McEniry late in the second quarter.

Magana and the offense ate more than half the clock to begin the third quarter. After a fourth-down conversion, Magana hit Mateusz Nycz for a 21-yard touchdown.

The Cadets wrapped their scoring on a Henry Miller 3-yard touchdown run as time expired. Sean Dahlman ran the ball 20 times for 99 yards but was kept out of the end zone.

“I’ve got some great seniors, some great senior leaders,” Marmion coach Adam Guerra said. “We’re also a really young team, and so, getting this kind of experience is important. It’s a long season. We gotta bounce back and clean up the mistakes.”

Even when the Broncos inserted backup quarterback Gaetano Carbornara, their offense remained productive. Carbonara threw touchdown passes of 6 yards to Harkins, his third of the game, and 9 yards to Jake Marquet. The latter score was set up by an interception from Julian D’Anca.