Warren turns back Libertyville

A three-goal lead safe?

Most of the time, yes.

Warren's boys soccer team may have thought it had a comfortable lead Thursday against visiting Libertyville, but the Blue Devils had to hold on for a 3-2 win in a North Suburban Lake Division match in Gurnee.

The Blue Devils (6-3-2, 2-1) scored three times in the first 16 minutes, but Libertyville (4-6, 0-3) clawed back.

"Three goals is never safe when you're playing a conference game against a quality opponent," Warren coach Jason Ahonen said. "They say '2-0' is the scary one, but when (Libertyville) made it 3-1, there's your 2-0.

"We had a couple of guys go down and we went deeper than we normally do. It just showed at times."

The Wildcats made it a one-goal difference in the 49th minute, as Joey Ruppert took a pass from Austin Gearing and beat Blue Devils keeper Brady Walsh.

The Wildcats pushed hard for the game-tying goal the remainder of the contest.

Libertyville's Andrei Alvarez had three shots for the equalizer. One hit the crossbar. On another chance in the box, a tightly marked Alvarez kicked a shot that just missed the post. In the final couple of minutes, Walsh took the ball off Alvarez's feet on a breakaway.

"I just came out, saw him take a bad touch and I went down for the ball," said Walsh, who credited defenders Michael Szczepanek, Zach Nitch, Patrick Schulz and Tyler Stenzel. "I thought my defense did a great job, and I did my best to keep the ball out of the back of the net."

Walsh made 5 of his 8 stops in the second half.

"It was a tale of two halves and it's been like that all year," Libertyville coach Andy Bitta said. "If we came out fired up in the first half, we'd be right there. We need to play hard for 80 minutes. After that second half, I was proud of the way we played. We could have tied them. We played a great second half against a good team."

Andres Alvarez scored Libertyville's first goal on a penalty kick in the 31st minute.

Warren got its first goal from Thiago Ganancio on an Andrew Piotrowski assist in the seventh minute.

Jon Trout scored just over a minute later, finishing a loose ball, and Brandon Brown made it 3-0 thanks to Ganancio's assist.

"When we're flowing with five in the mid, it's a pretty thing to watch," Ahonen said. "The first 20 was something to see. It's a matter of us finishing our opportunities and not getting complacent."