Boys soccer: Vernon Hills breaks through to supersectional
The Vernon Hills boys soccer team has been to the sectional final in three of the last four years.
It stands to reason that sooner or later, the Cougars were going to get past that point.
Finally, it happened.
Vernon Hills shut out Belvidere 2-0 in the Class 2A Grayslake North sectional final behind a pair of goals from Chris White, while keeper Brennan Reback posted his fourth straight shutout in the playoffs.
The Cougars (15-8) next meet Chicago Latin in a 6 p.m. Tuesday supersectional matchup, also at Grayslake North. The Romans defeated Fenwick 3-0 in the Amundsen sectional final on Saturday afternoon.
"It feels great to do it," said Vernon Hills coach Mike McCaulou of getting the team to the supersectional round for the first time. "Give credit to Belvidere - they knocked off Harvard, Grayslake Central and deserved to be here. (Belvidere) was a great team.
"We got two great goals in the first half and we played some great soccer. It was a total team effort and it was great to see from the boys."
White hadn't scored over his previous two playoff games, but he rose to the occasion for the Cougars with his 19th and 20th goals of the season.
First he scored on a header from perfectly placed cross from Corey Takaoka in the 29th minute.
"We were getting the first headers, but they were getting recycled and (Belvidere) wasn't matching with us," White said. "If it got recycled again, I'd recycle myself back in again. I called for the ball and Corey (Takaoka) did a nice job finding me. I was wide open.
"Give props in the back to (Belvidere), but they couldn't keep up with the physical and height advantage. I just found it and converted it."
Four minutes later, White got his second goal. This time he took a pass from Steven Tow, beat a couple of Bucs defenders and pushed the ball past keeper Edgar Gomez on a breakaway for a 2-0 advantage.
Vernon Hills' back line of Andrew Kim, Ryan Kim and Anakin Ruiz didn't let much get past them as Reback made 5 stops in goal.
"Our defense has always been a strong part of this team," Andrew Kim said. "We always believe defense, defense, defense. Through the playoffs, our coaches are talking about shutting down their quickness. We had to push up on (Belvidere's) backs and not let them turn. It really has worked in the playoffs."
Belvidere (18-6) seemed to be caught off guard by its early deficit and was unable to rally. The Bucs hadn't played a team with the kind of quickness Vernon Hills has.
"We were just really flat in the first half," Belvidere coach Jimmy Ivacic said. "Unfortunately, we can't call timeouts in soccer. It would've helped, but they were very confused with our game plan early on. (Vernon Hills) had a lot of speed up top. No credit to take away from them - they did a great job. We just had no offense going, and their defense did well. They had better distribution then ours and had some good give and go plays. This was the furthest we've ever gone and maybe we got caught up in the moment."