Libertyville tops Naperville North in 2 OTs
Libertyville senior Miles McNeir said he was on top of the world.
Wildcats coach Andy Bitta said he was on a “great high.”
And Naperville North's Huskies were feeling, well, whatever the opposite emotions are.
A second-overtime golden goal will have that effect.
McNeir's shot in the 100th minute of Friday night's Class 3A semifinal sent Libertyville into a frenzied celebration over its 3-2 victory at North Central College in Naperville.
“On top of the world right now,” McNeir said of his 19th goal of the season. “I don't even know what to say. I'm speechless. ... I cried. Not like a lot, but ...”
“It's a great high right now,” Bitta added. “We played a great game, we played a great team, a great team. We resemble each other so much with the speed and aggressiveness and intensity. It could've gone either way. I'm just happy as anything to get to the championship game again. It's been since '86 with the boys, so it's been a while here. It's fantastic.”
The Wildcats (21-3-2) play at 7 p.m. Saturday against Rockford Boylan (24-1-3) for the state championship. Boylan won in penalty kicks against Edwardsville (19-5-2), which will meet Naperville North (21-3-2) at 5 p.m. in the third-place game.
The game-winner started with a quick restart after a Naperville North foul. Junior Samuel Kaplan got the ball wide left to classmate Marshall Hollingsworth, who lofted the ball toward the Naperville North net. The Huskies goalkeeper dove and deflected the ball away, but it fell to McNeir, who made sure of the shot.
“I think we caught them a little knees-locked because they thought we were going to set up a play or something,” Bitta said. “We just played it right away. Great play by Sam and Marshall.”
As thrilled as Bitta was, Huskies coach Jim Konrad was disappointed.
“We laid an egg today,” Konrad said. “By far our worst game of the year in terms of defending. We gave up two super-soft goals. Just basic mistakes, things that we didn't do. Things we were good at all year we were bad at today. I'm obviously disappointed, not that we lost but that we showed so poorly. We looked like we didn't deserve to be here. We just did not play well.”
Jose Ibarra-Luna gave Libertyville a 1-0 lead in the 43rd minute, but Naperville North evened the score in the 46th on Kyle Lindberg's goal off an Austin Maggard assist.
“They countered so quickly, we didn't have time to think,” McNeir said of the Wildcats' brief lead. “We got a little lazy in the back, I guess, for one play, and they took advantage of it. It was a shame, but we got the win, so it's fine.”
Naperville North took the lead in the 62nd minute, Lee Grander scoring, with the assist to Joe Sullivan. Suddenly, Libertyville was chasing the game.
“It's not new for us. We know how to react,” McNeir said.
The Wildcats reacted well. A long Kaplan ball out of the back found Hollingsworth on the run, and the speedy midfielder beat a couple of Huskies to track it down, then put it in the net.
“He's all over the field. He just plays so, so hard. So hard,” Bitta said.
The Huskies started six juniors and a sophomore, but Konrad wouldn't hear of using youth as an excuse.
“I have no explanation for it,” he said. “We have not played like that all year. We were disorganized and lazy at times and sloppy, lackadaisical. All those bad words you can use. We just didn't do it. We had them, gave up a soft goal to tie it, then couldn't track down the second ball again.”