Libertyville 55, Zion-Benton 26

Libertyville's offense broke out of it Friday night, as the Wildcats defeated host Zion-Benton 55-26 in a North Suburban Conference Lake Division football game.

Wildcats quarterback Tom Piazzi passed for a season-high 235 yards and 3 touchdowns.

"This was a team effort," Piazzi said. "Our offensive line did a tremendous job and also the receivers did.

According to Libertyville coach Randy Kuceyeski, the 55 points are the most the Wildcats have scored in 30 years.

Libertyville improved to 4-3 overall and 2-2 in the NSC Lake.

"This was a big win for our offense since we've been struggling all season," Kuceyeski said. "Piazzi had some real good reads on their defense and we took advantage of some of their early mistakes."

Kicker Alvaro Castro put the Wildcats on the board with a school record 47-yard field goal with 8:08 to go in the first quarter.

Castro kicked another field goal in the second quarter and is one short of the Libertyville record.

Two of Piazzi's touchdown passes went to sophomore Jim Zotto,

"Today the line did a great job blocking for me once I caught the ball," said Zotto, who was called up from the sophomore team three weeks ago.

After Libertyville built a 27-0 lead, Zion Benton broke the shutout as Henry McDaniel ran the ball in from the 6-yard line with 26 seconds left in the first half.

Twenty seconds later, Libertyville countered as Piazzi threw a 28-yard pass to Doug Houser to give the Wildcats a 34-6 halftime lead.

Z-B quarterback T.J. Trepanier threw for 275 yards and 3 touchdowns.

The Zee-Bees scored 20 points in the second half.

"We really came back after a bad first half," said Zion-Benton coach Kelly Rice, whose Zee-Bees fell to 1-6 and 0-5. "Our players showed a lot of heart and kept playing hard."