Home sweet homecoming as Libertyville stops Zion-Benton
With a 1-4 record heading into its Week 6 homecoming game, host Libertyville needed a win over Zion-Benton to keep its playoff hopes alive for the 2010 football season.
And while the Wildcats' defense still struggled in the first half, the Wildcats took a 28-21 lead into halftime of this North Suburban Conference Lake Division shootout.
Libertyville (2-4, 2-2) never did build more than that 7-point lead until late in the game, but the Wildcats held off the pesky Zee-Bee's with a late defensive stand and touchdown to keep their playoff hopes alive with a 41-28 victory.
Libertyville quarterback A.J. Schurr had a huge game for the Wildcats with 5 rushing touchdowns and his 1-yard keeper followed by an extra point by Andrei Alvarez made the score 7-0 just 1:54 into the game.
Zion-Benton (0-6, 0-3) responded to that TD just 19 seconds later though as Artavius Nixon zig-zagged through the Wildcats' defense for a 74-yard TD run to deadlock the score at 7-7. Nixon was injured late in the first quarter and never returned.
Libertyville's passing game was good as Schurr (11-for-19) threw for 157 yards, but its ground attack was even better as it accounted for 213 of the Cats' 370 total yards.
A 33-yard pass to Andrew O'Sullivan and a 28-yard pass to Jeremy Birck set up Libertyville's second TD as Schurr scored on another 1-yard keeper for a 14-7 lead with seven minutes left in the first quarter.
Zion-Benton running back Alex Pasiewicz showed a lot of power on the Zee-Bee's next time-consuming drive as he scored on a 3-yard run late in the first quarter to tie the score at 14-14.
Schurr put a nice stutter-step move on Donovan Wilson on his way to a 13-yard TD run with 7:52 left in the second quarter.
But Zion-Benton quarterback Cole Urban faked a pitch and hit Zack Creekmore for a 9-yard TD pass to deadlock the score at 21-21 1:45 before halftime. Urban was also injured very late in the game as there was lightning and heavy rain hitting the field turf for the final half of the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats quickly marched 60 yards on 5 plays on their ensuing possession as a 25-yard pass to Birck put the ball on the 4-yard-line. Then Schurr scored his fourth TD on yet another keeper for a 28-21 lead at the intermission.
"They (Zion-Benton) came out better than I expected and they were moving the ball," said Schurr, whose team had 24 first downs. "We're known more as a passing team than a running team, but we had more yards running tonight."
The second half was much more tame than the first half offensively, but the Zee-Bees kept the pressure on Libertyville by tying the score at 28-28 on a 1-yard keeper by Urban with 4:59 left in the third quarter.
The Cats never folded though as Schurr engineered a 69-yard scoring drive as he showed his elusiveness with a 16-yard TD run for a 35-28 lead with 2:59 left in the third quarter.
The Zee-Bees had a great chance to force a tie late in the fourth quarter, but Libertyville sophomore Nick Carlino's sack on a fourth down play at the Wildcats' 7 basically sealed Zion-Benton's fate with 3:39 to play.
The Wildcats did march 85 yards on the ground for good measure though as sophomore Brian Swift (102 yards on 9 carries) went 33 yards through traffic for the TD and a 41-28 lead with 1:31 remaining.
"It was a win and we're happy with it," said Libertyville coach Randy Kuceyeski. "He (Schurr) had another outstanding game and he had a good game running and passing. We want to be 1-0 after every week now, and this is the first step in that direction."
Schurr rushed for 67 yards on 16 attempts while Pasiewicz had 66 yards on 20 rushes. Urban was 15-for-24 passing for 191 yards, but he was intercepted by Max Ebert very late in the second quarter to kill a potential scoring drive.