Notre Dame long snapper Rino Monteforte spoke the end of the Orange Bowl into existence.
Throughout the fourth quarter, the Kellenberg High School product from North Babylon kept saying to holder Chris Salerno, “We’re gonna win this game and it’s gonna come down to us.”
When Notre Dame cornerback Christian Gray secured a diving interception at the Penn State 42-yard line with 33 seconds left in a tie game, Monteforte knew the field goal unit would get its shot.
“You can prepare for that moment as much as you want. I’ve dreamt about that moment probably every day since I started long snapping in seventh grade,” Monteforte told Newsday. “But nothing could ever really replicate it. I just remember running out onto the field, looking back at my holder and saying to myself, ‘I’m built for this.’ ”
Then Monteforte, who was battling the flu, said he blacked out. Fortunately, the cameras at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, did not.
Monteforte’s snap and Salerno’s hold were perfect, and Mitch Jeter’s kick from 41 yards out split the uprights with seven seconds left. That gave the Fighting Irish a 27-24 win over sixth-seeded Penn State and punched their ticket to the College Football Playoff championship game.
“That was the biggest snap of my life,” said Monteforte, a junior. “The only thing that would be bigger is if we have to do that again in this upcoming game.”
Seventh-seeded Notre Dame will face eighth-seeded Ohio State in the first 12-team College Football Playoff championship game on Monday at 7:30 p.m. at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Monteforte is joined by junior cornerback Mickey Brown, a Southampton native and St. Anthony’s graduate, as the Fighting Irish try to win their first national championship since 1988.
Notre Dame football player Rino Monteforte. Credit: Notre Dame Athletics
Monteforte, who stands at 5-7, 200 pounds, began long snapping in seventh grade and credits a $600 long snapping target that his mom, Justina, got him for Christmas for much of his success. He became “best friends” with the target for the next 5 ½ years, leading to an offer from Notre Dame.
When he was a sophomore at Kellenberg, he was called up from JV to be the varsity long snapper. Monteforte said only three sophomores before him had gotten pulled up to the Kellenberg varsity team.
“He’s the craziest long snapper I’ve ever seen at Kellenberg,” said Joe Citrano, Kellenberg’s JV offensive line coach. “All the coaches on my staff took turns catching his snaps. When he snaps that ball, it gets on you really fast.”
Citrano described Monteforte’s part in the winning field goal in the national semifinal as one of his proudest moments as a coach. When the snap hit Salerno’s hands and Jeter’s kick went through the uprights, Citrano’s group chat with the rest of the Kellenberg coaches went ballistic.
“To see him at 5-7 to play for the University of Notre Dame, where the two guys next to him are probably like 6-7, 350 pounds, it just shows that anybody’s dream is possible,” Citrano said. “You just have to keep going for it and here he is, a couple days away from the national championship.”
Through Notre Dame’s first three playoff games, the Irish have made all six of their field goals and all five PATs.
In the third quarter of its 27-17 first-round win over No. 10 seed Indiana on Dec. 20, Notre Dame attempted a fake field goal that put Monteforte in a key role.
Facing fourth-and-8 at the 10-yard line, with six teammates lined up on his left and no one on his right at the line of scrimmage, instead of snapping the ball through his legs, Monteforte turned to his left and flipped a backward pass to tight end Mitchell Evans.
Evans came up two yards short of the first-down marker, but Indiana had called timeout just before Monteforte’s lateral, and Notre Dame ultimately kicked a field goal to take a 20-3 lead.
“I’ll remember that for the rest of my life. That was a pretty cool play,” Monteforte said. “With that and all the field goals that we’ve kicked in the last three games, we’ve had a lot of really cool playoff moments that I’m gonna cherish for the rest of my life. We’re hoping to make one more in Atlanta on Monday.”
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