Some nights, the football just finds you.
At least that’s what Brentwood senior defensive back Johnny Silvestri must be thinking after collecting four Centennial turnovers on Friday evening, helping the Bruins remain unbeaten in a 28-21 win.
Silvestri intercepted three Elisha Nieves passes and recovered a fumble inside the Bruins’ 15-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
The first of his thefts came right out of the gate, when Nieves took a deep shot on the opening play of the game, but Silvestri was monitoring the middle third of the field and came away with the ball. His second interception came on Centennal’s first series of the second half, as Nieves targeted Ethan Cleary down the middle but Silvestri locked in on the touch pass before it reached its destination.
“No, never,” Silvestri said when asked if he had ever had that type of stat line. “Well, last year I had two touchdowns in one game, but that was nothing like this. The atmosphere was way better, just everything was way better about it.”
Silvestri had two interception returns for touchdowns last year in a win at Hillsboro.
The Bruins turned over Centennial five times in all.
“The story is we graduated two really good safeties last year and we were really worried about if we have guys to replace them,” Brentwood head coach Clint Finch said. “Three picks tonight by Johnny Silvestri and one by Jack Zach. Those two have been great.”
The Cougars were driving inside the Bruins’ 20 in the fourth quarter, when a Brentwood defender knocked the ball loose from Dominic Reed. Silvestri was at the bottom of the scramble and came away with the football, turning away another Cougar scoring chance.
“We made a lot of checks on what (Centennial) was beating us on (in the first half),” Silvestri said. “And we stopped it in the second half.”
But the biggest blow came when Silvestri collected his third pick off Nieves after Brentwood had just punted to Centennial with four minutes remaining. Nieves looked for Kani Johnson over the middle, but Silvestri stepped in front of Johnson and secured his fourth turnover of the evening.
“Johnny pulled our bacon out of the fire three times tonight,” Finch said. “Really proud of him, and as a kid, (he’s where) he’s coached to be. Defensive staff put him in great positions, he made great plays.”
Brentwood scored to take a 28-14 lead shortly after Silvestri’s fourth quarter interception, and although Centennial added a score in the final minute, the Bruins were able to escape with their unbeaten record intact.
“It was a great week of practice,” Silvestri said. “We knew it was going to be a tough fight.”
Brentwood heads into its open date next week with an 8-0 mark and home games against Independence and Ravenwood to close the regular season.
After that kind of performance, what does Silvestri plan to do with his fall break?
“Just rest up,” Silvestri said. “My hip flexors are tight, so I’m just going to rest up.”