Libertyville does what it takes to beat Lake Zurich

Playing on grass at a neutral site definitely was an equalizer for the Lake Zurich and Libertyville boys soccer teams Saturday afternoon — because they both are more accustomed to playing on artificial turf.

In the quarterfinals of the Pepsi Showdown, Libertyville rose to the occasion and got past Lake Zurich 2-0 at the Lyons Soccer Complex in LaGrange.

“We played good enough to win,” said Wildcats coach Andy Bitta. “On this field, under these field conditions, you’re not going to score too many goals. It was more turf and it’s long grass. The ball would take a bad bounce.

“You couldn’t build from the back. We had to play kick and run. It hurts our style of play. We’re just happy to get a victory out of it.”

The top-seeded Wildcats (7-1, 3-0) will meet Morton on Saturday afternoon in a semifinal match at Lyons.

The Wildcats had lost to Morton last year on shootout kicks in the Pepsi Showdown championship match at the Chicago Fire’s home stadium, Toyota Park in Bridgeview.

The Wildcats found the back of the net twice in the first half.

“Getting the goals early helped us tremendously,” said Bitta, who employed five defenders after intermission to hold the Bears in check. “Lake Zurich had some nice chances at us in the second half. I was just happy with the formation and the team effort.”

The Wildcats netted their first goal in the ninth minute after Bears goalkeeper Jeff Kreutz and the Wildcats’ Austin Bitta were sent off for receiving yellow cards.

The Bears’ Greg Geimer took over between the pipes for Kreutz, who had to leave the field.

The Wildcats’ Shane Reilly scored off a pass from Lloyd Chatfield.

“I saw Lloyd (Chatfield) had the ball and he was going to play it to me,” said Reilly, who scored his first goal this season. “I knew I could beat my guy. It was a great pass and I took a good first touch and put it in.”

The Wildcats added their second goal when Marshall Hollingsworth delivered a penalty kick in the 36th minute, after Chatfield was knocked down in the penalty area.

“We had our chances and it was unfortunate to have your goalie out of the game,” said Bears coach Mike Schmitz, whose team dropped to 3-3-3, 2-1. “I thought we had to get back into it. We feel for 79 minutes and 30 seconds we played them even and had as many chances. It’s always unfortunate to see game decided in that manner.”

Bears midfielder Jon Pothast tried to stay with some of the talented Wildcats in the midfield, more than a challenge.

“It was tough going against a good team like Libertyville,” Pothast said. “Libertyville has some decent players and controls the ball. It gets tough chasing them. We need to keep the ball. We gave the ball away too many times and got caught out of position.

Wildcats keeper Zach Labrum had a clean sheet and made 6 stops to record his fifth shutout of the season.