Nov. 27--Chris Andriano has seen a little bit of everything in 41 years of coaching at Montini, including 36 as head coach. Soon, he expects to coach the grandkids of some of his first players.
The winner of five state titles since 2004 still is willing to try anything to give his team an advantage.
"I'll probably wear the same clothes as last week," he said. "We played pretty well last week."
When the frigid air hinders a practice during the playoffs, Andriano schedules indoor sessions at The Dome at the Ballpark in Rosemont, Westmont Yard or the Max McCook Athletic and Exposition Center in McCook.
The Broncos installed their game plan Tuesday in Rosemont, where Northwestern-bound kicker Mason Weissenhofer had the rare chance to boot punts into the center-field bleachers.
All the repeat clothes-wearing and home-run kicking is in preparation for what has become a Thanksgiving weekend tradition for the Lombard school.
For the sixth consecutive season, the Broncos will play for the Class 5A state title.
Montini's four-year championship run ended 38-28 last year to Sacred Heart-Griffin, its opponent Saturday.
Since the Illinois High School Association football championships began in 1974, only seven of the 260 title games have been rematches of the previous year. No team that lost the first game has come back to win the second.
"We don't play those kind of odds," Andriano said. "We're not gamblers. We're football players."
The Broncos have dedicated the season to former Montini football player Johnny Weiger, who was diagnosed with leukemia following his freshman season in 2011 and died from bone-marrow transplant complications during the Broncos' playoff run in 2012. He would have graduated with this year's seniors.
"Even though he's not with us anymore, it's his last game also," senior receiver Leon Thornton III said. "We've just got to put it all out on the field for him."
The 2014 Broncos had a more tumultuous journey than last year's team, which advanced to the final 13-0 with narrow wins against Maine South (regular season), Marian Central (regular season) and Joliet Catholic (playoffs) and blowout wins against everyone else.
Gone are defensive lineman Dylan Thompson (Ohio State), linebacker Nile Sykes (Indiana), receiver Tyler Tumpane (Dayton) and two-year starting quarterback Alex Wills (Butler).
Montini joined the Chicago Catholic League Green from the now-defunct Suburban Christian Blue and sustained 36-35 loss in Week 1, when Maine South scored three touchdowns in the final three minutes -- two off Montini special teams miscues -- to rally from a 20-point deficit.
Two weeks later, St. Rita outmuscled the Broncos for their first shutout loss since 2006, and St. Francis won 31-7 in Week 7. But Montini responded after each loss, as senior quarterback Chuck Norgle and the Indiana-bound Thornton have thrived in their elevated roles.
Montini had not lost three games in a season since 2009, when the Broncos qualified as a 5-4 wild card before winning their first of four consecutive titles. Andriano compared this year's team to that team, noting their underdog status against Joliet Catholic in the championship game.
The Broncos are billing themselves as the underdogs against the Cyclones, an offensive juggernaut riding a 27-game win streak. Twenty-five of their last 27 wins have come by at least 22 points, with the title-game victory against the Broncos one exception.
"They are so good at what they do that the offense puts the pressure on the whole game," Andriano said. "You don't want to fall behind early to these guys. They've had 13 games and 13 running clocks."
Montini will have to take lessons learned from its losses to beat the Cyclones. The Broncos' defense against the spread and lack of physical play hurt them against St. Francis and St. Rita.
"When we come in the first day of camp, our coaches tell us flat out, 'Our goal is to get downstate,' " Thornton said.
Norgle interrupted his teammate.
"The goal is to win state."
