Girls soccer: Libertyville knocks Warren out of NSC lead
Host Libertyville stormed past Warren Tuesday night at Walter Johnson Sports Complex to claim a 4-1 victory in a NSC season finale for both sides.
The win gives the Wildcats an impressive 14-1-3 overall record, and 6-1-0 in league play, while dashing the hopes of the Blue Devils (10-4-2, 5-1-1) who knew a win would still keep them alive in the title race along with Stevenson.
"This was easily our best effort of the season," said Wildcats coach Ian Taylor, whose club in its last five games outscored its opponents 34-2, four of those contests coming in league play.
"Sydney's (Dulak) early goal really gave us the start we wanted to have tonight, and after that, I thought our ball movement, passing, and ability to play quick, was the difference all night long," added senior Shannon Phillips, who along with her backline of Lainey Chung, Anna George and Riley Underwood kept the Blue Devils’ superb forward Addison Stanciak from the super dangerous player that she is.
In the Blue Devils’ 3-0 recent victory over Lake Zurich, which kept them even with Stevenson atop the league, Stanciak bagged all three goals, the third time she has done so this season, with keeper Emma Megerle turning in a magnificent performance to preserve the shutout victory.
"They (Libertyville) had a great start, and it kind of put us on our heels. (We) fought hard for the rest of the first half, and came out to play much better as a team after the break," said Megerle.
Dulak, who will join Stanciak in the fall at St. Louis University, unloaded an unstoppable curling effort just inside the far post from 25 yards in the fourth minute for her ninth goal of the season.
The Wildcats went looking to double their advantage by showing remarkable ball control and a high percentage of passes completed, in addition to sending a handful of quality chances on frame, and at Megerle.
Senior Lily Frantz made it 2-0 in the 21st minute with a deft touch from 16 yards, redirecting an inch perfect helper from freshman Danica Meller.
With plenty more energy, urgency and work rate after the intermission, the visitors put pressure on the Wildcats in their quest to pull one back. However, Natalie Schmidt slowed the effort of the Blue Devils when the freshman finished what Shea Krakowski started in the 70th minute.
That's when the junior rattled the bar off a nice save from Megerle, spilling the ball freely to Schmidt who steered in the third goal of the night.
A brilliant early ball from Stanciak fell onto the foot of Kate Mondejar, who was rewarded for her terrific second half effort when she made it 3-1 at 73 minutes.
Bella Yarc would answer quickly thereafter as she increased the Wildcats’ advantage to 4-1 with Krakowski earning credit for another assist.
"That wasn't the start we were looking for tonight, but Libertyville is a very talented and athletic team, and we struggled with that in the first half, but came out to play a much better second half," said Blue Devils coach Ryan McCabe.
"We need to get healthy right now to get ourselves ready for regionals, and after our game at Deerfield this Thursday, we'll have some time to train, and rest."
"I guess we will be going for Lake Zurich who plays Stevenson tomorrow night, and hopefully get some help from them," said Phillips.
Should Lake Zurich defeat Stevenson, it will force a tie for the NSC title between the Patriots and Wildcats. A victory by the Patriots will give them sole ownership of the trophy.
Next up for the Wildcats is their regular season finale on Friday at Glenbrook South.