Libertyville’s Witucki ‘back’ on target
Libertyville’s Adam Witucki has been dealing with a sore back for an extended period of time, and he took some time off to heal just before the start of the postseason.
A good remedy for what ailed him, as Witucki led the Wildcats with a goal and an assist Saturday afternoon and Joey Ruppert and Nick Vogel each added a goal as top-seeded Libertyville powered past No. 7 Palatine 3-0 in the IHSA Class 3A regional final at Libertyville.
The Wildcats (17-3-1) play No. 4 Fremd (13-5-4) on Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the Palatine sectional semifinals.
Witucki injured his back about a month ago in the Pepsi Showdown championship victory over Lyons at Toyota Park. He made his first throw-ins since then against Palatine.
“It’s been quite awhile to make throw-in’s because of my back injury,” said Witucki, who sat out the last two regular-season matches before playing in the regional semifinal. “I’ve been trying to get it healed. I’ve been keeping it iced and have been seeing a chiropractor last couple of weeks.
Witucki had a role in 2 goals just four minutes apart in the second half.
On the first, Witucki was credited with a goal on a throw that deflected off a Palatine player into the next.
On the other, Vogel connected on a header.
“This year we’ve done it three or four times.” said Witucki, who has 2 goals and 4 assists. “One of their players misdirected it and it went into the goal. I don’t think I’ve ever done that before.”
The Wildcats’ first goal came in the 26th minute. Ruppert head-flicked the ball at the near post into the corner off a Marshall Hollingsworth corner kick.
“We normally don’t score that many on set pieces,” said Wildcats coach Andy Bitta about all 3 of the goals. “First time we’ve done that all year. We’ll take it, any way to score. I expected (Palatine) to score on set pieces more because of their height or throw-ins. It turned out we got it.”
Palatine had the run early but couldn’t find the back of the net. But as the game wore on, the momentum shifted to the Wildcats.
“That’s why Libertyville is who they are and they are ranked,” said Palatine coach Willie Filian. “They found their rhythm and we started to run out of gas at the end of the first half. They changed the game and more power to them. They scored 3 of those set pieces off of us. They played into our strengths and beat us at it.”