Christian Liberty boys soccer breaks new ground

Christian Liberty Academy’s boys soccer team produced its best effort of the season Tuesday afternoon and was rewarded with a thrilling 3-2 victory over Keith Country Day to not only clinch its first conference soccer title in program history, but also the school’s first-ever conference championship in IHSA competition.

The Chargers (17-0-0, 5-0-0) shattered the hopes of the visiting Cougars, who arrived in Arlington Heights Tuesday undefeated in confererence play. But Keith left on a long bus ride back to Rockford on the outside looking in after suffering its first loss on the final day of the regular season in the Northeastern Athletic Conference, 1 match behind the newly crowned champs.

“It feels great,” agreed Luke Comerouski and Mike Hennek, who both played key roles against a talented and highly skilled club which earned the No. 1 seed in its own regional.

“It’s pretty amazing to think that last year we were 8-8, and the year before we won just a few games, but this year, we’re undefeated and just won the school’s first championship,” said Hennik.

Christian Liberty’s back-line defenders absorbed plenty of pressure in the first quarter-hour, then played airtight defense to keep the Cougars far away from standout keeper Jack Salsgiver.

“The thing is, you can only score so many goals, but it’s your defense that is going to win games for you,” said Comerouski, whose 43rd goal of the season in the 68th minute prove to be the game-winner.

“Noah Johnson, Tom Salsgiver and Michael Milkowski were just amazing in the back today,” said Christian Liberty coach Jed Bennett, “and with both Mike (Hennek) and especially David Colbert working so hard defensively on the outside for 80 minutes, we were able to defend against a team which had a lot of weapons, and were so quick and fast on the ball.”

The visitors were on the front foot from the opening whistle, and the wonderfully creative trio of David Rebollar, Rafi Pelayo and Angel Carreno provided a cutting-edge attack which looked to be on the cusp of solving the Chargers in their own end during a wild first quarter-hour.

“They put a lot of pressure on us, but after we settled down after some early trouble, I thought we began to slowly win back the run of play, and after that the game kind of evened out until we got our 2 goals,” said Comerouski.

A short punt out of the back from Keith keeper Matt Greer was gobbled up by Colbert, who roared down the right side and beat his mark to the endline before unleasing a wicked blast past Greer.

While the Cougars were clearly more skilled from front to back, they were unable to match the Chargers’ work rate. Christian Liberty won the midfield battles and stayed organized along the back despite several charges forward by the Keith forward as well as Danny Morales, who ventured forward to join the attack at times.

Morales pushed up to help on a Rebollar corner but his missed attempt sent a loose ball back into the mix. That allowed Beni Filimon to outrace Morales and two others in what became a 1 v 1 with Greer. And when the Cougars keeper was far off his line and out of the box, the junior fired up and over him and into the back of the net from 35 yards to finish a spectacular goal.

“What a goal,” was all Bennett could say, with a huge smile on his face.

After the break, Keith coach Rillo Oliveira moved Morales up top and went with three forwards for the second half. The tactical move paid dividends when the visitors cut the lead in half at 56 minutes after a brief sequence in which the hosts were unable to clear their own area, allowing Morales to go past Salsgiver.

The next 10 minutes were fast and furious, and because of that, plenty of extra space opened up for both sides. Comerouski took advantage first, after Hennik and Colbert helped keep play alive long enough until the area’s leading scorer tricked his way through a pair of defenders before beating Greer the other way.

What was first thought to be an own-goal, and later was given to Pelayo, helped draw the Cougars within 3-2 in the 71st minute. But as they had all afternoon, the Chargers defended with all of their might to stop the Cougars and earn themselves a league championship.

“I couldn’t be more proud of this team, which has worked so hard to get to were we are today,” said Bennett. “And for many of them, I am really happy that they stayed with it from where we were a couple of years ago, and have seen what hard work and dedication can achieve.”