Healed Libertyville puts Willowbrook on its heels

Libertyville’s boys soccer team returned four of its five players who’d been missing from the starting lineup because of recent injuries.

At much closer to full strength, the Wildcats produced one of their best efforts this season.

The top-ranked Wildcats shut out visiting Willowbrook 8-0 in a Pepsi Showdown opener on Tuesday night in Libertyville.

Libertyville (5-1, 1-0) next hosts St. Joseph at 6:30 p.m. Thursday. St. Joseph upset No. 16 seed Downers Grove North 5-0.

“I thought we touched the ball fantastic,” Libertyville coach Andy Bitta said. “Two-touch, moving off the ball, running off the ball, it was one of better games of the year. We came out very unselfish and played excellent.”

The players regaining their health for the Wildcats were Adam Witucki, Carlos Schultz, Keenan Busse and Alex Wealther. Sam Kaplin remains sidelined.

“It gives us so much more depth,” Bitta said. “There’s so much more we can do with them back.”

Libertyville scored all 8 goals in the first 33 minutes. Lloyd Chatfield scored twice, Marshall Hollingsworth scored on a penalty kick and had 2 assists and Tomide Owolabi had a goal and an assist. Other goals came from David Ruiz, Austin Bitta, Ryan McKenzie and Nick Vogel. McKenzie and Carlos Schultz also had assists.

“We all know the runs to make, and we play well together,” Chatfeld said. “It’s all the chemistry and knowing the runs. We played together last year and we know the speed of playing the ball.”

Willowbrook (0-6) had a longer night than expected. First the bus took a wrong turn on its way to Libertyville and ended up out on I-90 heading toward Belvidere before correcting course. The Warriors were still two hours late.

“Three hours to get here was a bit ridiculous,” Willowbrook coach Brian Frank said. “Libertyville was quicker and that’s why they are the No. 1 seed in the tournament.

“We didn’t think that we would make the championship game. I wanted to expose my guys to a team like this so we can take what we saw and used it as a training session moving forward. Our kids played hard and didn’t quit.”