Comerouski’s choice striking for Christian Liberty

Luke Comerouski can relate to the nightmares he is causing in his dream senior season at Christian Liberty.

Comerouski is used to stopping opposing scorers from a defensive-midfield position with his Sockers FC club soccer team. But when he decided to play this season for Christian Liberty, that spot belonged to senior Mike Hennek.

So, Comerouski was put into an attacking position by Chargers coach Jed Bennett.

“I came into it knowing I had to do more of the scoring,” Comerouski said.

The results have been strikingly perfect for Comerouski and the Chargers. He takes an amazing 49 goals and his team takes a 20-0-0 record into today’s 6:30 p.m. Class 1A Harvard sectional semifinal against Rockford Keith Country Day.

“He’s even surprised me,” Bennett said. “When he came to our team I said, ‘We don’t need a defensive-midfielder, we need a finisher.’ It’s worked out great.”

To say Comerouski was the missing piece to a puzzle with 10 returning starters is an understatement. Especially since he’s rarely missed the net even though he’s used to seasons where his scoring chances are limited.

According to IHSA records, he’s tied for 19th for the most goals in a season with Hoffman Estates’ Steve Snow in 1985. The state record is 71 by Robert Meschback of Gordon Tech in 1976.

“I knew I’d be one of the top players but I didn’t think I’d have this many goals this season,” said Comerouski, whose hat trick Saturday led to the first regional title by a boys team in Christian Liberty’s three years as an IHSA member school. “I knew I’d be able to help the team out but I’m surprised at how well I’ve done.”

But Comerouski, a two-time all-Northeastern Athletic Conference basketball player and team scoring leader, is hardly a soccer novice. He has played soccer since he was 6 years old and twin sisters Carly and Claire and sister Errika played for an NAIA fourth-place national finisher at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights.

Comerouski, who lives in Itasca and has attended Christian Liberty since kindergarten, played on a club team that took sixth in the nation. He said he was one of the few players who stayed with his travel team while most of his teammates went to play for their high school teams in the fall.

And Comerouski did get his share of prodding from his classmates about playing for Christian Liberty.

“I told him I understood that if you’re going to lose college scholarships by playing for us instead of playing for your club, then I don’t want to be part of that,” Bennett said. “I said, ‘Obviously we’d love to have you.’ I talked to him once or twice and then left him alone and let it be his decision.”

With most of his Sockers FC teammates playing for their high schools this year, Comerouski decided in July to do the same.

“I thought it would be fun for my senior year to go play,” Comerouski said, “and obviously I thought we’d have a chance of doing well, which we have.

“Everybody on the team gets along great and there isn’t any jealousy going on.”

A big reason for it is Comerouski even as he gets the bulk of the goal-scoring glory. He is also closing in on 15 assists as Hennek and David Colbert are also scoring threats.

“Everybody else’s stats are up, too, and he’s the epitome of a guy who makes everybody else on the field better,” Bennett said.

“Luke is a special kid,” said Christian Liberty athletic director Steve Rowland. “God blessed this kid with athleticism and humility.”

Comerouski also scores big academically with a perfect 5.0 grade-point average and a 30 on the ACT. He is still undecided about where he wants to go to school and what he wants to study.

Comerouski is ranked 10th among Midwest players to watch by topdrawersoccer.com. A lot of his friends on his club team are going to Division I programs.

“I could play at that level, too,” he said. “But if the opportunity doesn’t present itself, I’ll look at NAIA. I’m open to a lot.”

Right now his concern is a rematch of one of the Chargers’ toughest matches of the year. They won the school’s first conference title by a boys program with a 3-2 win a couple of weeks ago over Keith.

Comerouski suffered a strained left hamstring in that match which slowed him for a bit. He only played about 10 minutes of the regional opener but was feeling better Saturday.

And the goals of winning St. Edward tournament, conference and regional titles have changed as the goals have piled up by Comerouski.

“We joked about it a couple of times but we never took it too seriously,” Comerouski said of the possibility of going to the 1A state finals in Normal. “Obviously everything has gone right and we’ve had a lot of breaks, which you obviously need. You have to have luck.”

And it was Christian Liberty’s good fortune that Comerouski decided to fill the one open starting spot.

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com