Broncos' best deliver
The tried and the tested delivered for Barrington on Monday night in Lisle.
Tight defense and swift attacking brought goals for Ata Ozbay, Ryan Noland and all-state striker Francesco Furio, and with them a place in the Class AA boys soccer state tournament as the Broncos defeated Libertyville 3-0 at the Benedictine University supersectional.
Next up for the Broncos (22-2-0) is Granite City supersectional champ Collinsville at 4 p.m. Friday at North Central College in Naperville.
"At the start of every season I always tell my team(s) that I am planning on going to the state tournament, and are they going to join me," said Barrington coach Scott Steib.
"Well, it looks like they are going to be there with me -- and we're going there to play, not watch. It's just incredible."
"We're in the last eight," said Broncos senior midfielder Cameron Reilly, who along with his mates slowly began to gather possession in the middle of the park to help take control of a match.
Libertyville (14-6-0) opened brightly enough to get the eventual state qualifiers out of synch during the first quarter hour.
"I really thought for the first 15-20 minutes we had the better run of play, but only up to the 18 because after that we just weren't sharp enough in our attack to put any pressure or quality chances on (Barrington's) keeper," said Libertyville coach Andy Bitta.
The pace of the Wildcats' front men, Alvaro Castro and Brad Novak, was immediately obvious and appeared to bother Barrington's back line. At the other end, the Cats' defense, with Andrew Stone hounding Furio continually, shook up the Broncos' attack.
"(Libertyville) came out and played really hard and it took us awhile to settle down and play the way we wanted to," said Broncos sweeper Brian Bernal.
Still, the Broncos were able to find the back of the net first.
Jack Valentine launched a crossfield pass from the right touch line which found an unmarked Ozbay at the far post, and the junior's first touch broke the ball down to his boot, and he fired in a 12-yard low drive past Cats keeper Jim Palac at 32 minutes.
"What a great first touch from Ata, wasn't it?" asked Steib.
The goal awoke a sleeping giant and as the half winded down. The chances started to dry up for the Wildcats while the Broncos' attack gained energy right up until intermission -- and after.
"We made some adjustments at half, and began very well," Bitta said. "But Barrington is a very good club and it became harder for us to do anything when they had us on our heels almost that entire second half."
Ryan Mangone looked to have put the Broncos up 2-0 at 46 minutes on a great individual effort, but the center referee waived off his strike. After that, it was one-way traffic toward the Wildcats' goal. In the 58th minute, Nolan supplied his strike to make it 2-0 when he finished off a superb 1-2 combination with Ozbay.
About three minutes later, Furio (22 goals this season) powered a redirected header off a serve near the spot by Bernal into the back of the net to give the Broncos a 3-goal lead.
"We still have a lot of soccer ahead of us to be played," said Furio.
"This team has really made its mark so far this year by reaching 22 wins and advancing into the state tournament," Steib said. "They are a special group of kids."