Boys soccer: Libertyville repeats as Northside tourney champ

Libertyville's boys soccer team scored a 3-0 win against Waukegan on Saturday to take top honors for the second straight year in the Northside College Showcase tournament hosted by New Trier.

"A number of the Top 20 teams in the state are in this tournament," Libertyville coach Kevin Thunholm said. "It's awesome for us to win it. It's a good start for our guys.

"We're starting to click, and we've got a lot of players that saw playing time - but we still have a lot of things to work on. This was a steppingstone, and we talked about this being one of our goals. Then we can concentrate on conference from there."

Libertyville (4-0) has been dominant on defense. The Wildcats have allowed only one goal, and that came on a penalty kick surrendered to Lyons. Junior keeper Hunter Lynch has 3 shutouts, and the Wildcats have outscored their opponents 17-1.

DePaul-bound Grant Herbek leads the defense along with Jacob Damocles, Brendan Quigley and Mason Williams.

"We have three new members back there, but we're just as solid," Herbek said. "We've got height, and we've got speed. I don't see any flaws with us. Our stat is goals against and we're hoping to keep that low."

Williams scored the opening goal in the 30th minute by knocking in a rebound.

"I knew we had (Waukegan) pinned first half," Williams said. "We just needed to punch one in. We had talked about playing the ball across the goal, and I was just there to finish. I saw it was a deflection, and I knew where it was going to be. I just wanted to get it on the frame."

The Wildcats scored again in the second half, as Tanner Kelly served the ball to the near post. Evan Rasmussen headed it to the back post, and Mickey Reilly finished it at the back side in the 54th minute.

Four minutes later, Rasmussen set up Kelly, who beat a defender with two touches and found the back of the net.

"Good teams take advantage of your mistakes," Waukegan coach Peter Valdez said. "Libertyville is a very good team. It's not enough to stay with teams like that. We have to develop more of a creative attack. We have to have a little bit more width and touch. That's our style.

"I don't think we've found our identity," Valdez added. "I take a lot of positive things away from this. We had guys playing positions that they hadn't played before, but they stepped up big time. We have a young team and are learning little by little."