Boys soccer: Libertyville returns to 3A final four
In a test of endurance, will and patience, Libertyville's boys soccer team marched into the Class 3A state semifinals with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over a gritty Evanston side at Barrington Community Stadium on Tuesday night.
Nate Edmunds stole the show with his 78th-minute strike to send coach Andy Bitta's team into a Friday evening semi against Morton (25-2-0) at tourney host Hoffman Estates High School.
"It always seems so long in between getting to the state tournament, because it is so difficult to get there - and especially when you look at the killer sectional we were a part of this season," said Bitta, who has made it to this stage for the fourth time in his career. It's Libertyville's first final four appearance since 2010, when the Wildcats brought home a second-place state trophy.
"Evanston got us the first time around (1-0) in our second game of the year," said Bitta. "But we have improved each time out to become a very good team - as have they. But tonight I think we were the better team when it mattered, which allowed us to get through."
It proved nearly impossible to separate the sides during a cagey opening quarter-hour, with each club testing the other via balls out of the back in an attempt to possess and use the extra-wide width of the turf at Barrington.
"I thought we did well to control the early part of the match, then it was Evanston's turn, who had most of the play after the break until we slowly began to take over," Bitta said.
While the Wildkits tried to connect with senior Adam Trujillo, Libertyville (17-3-1) had several players regularly involved in the effort to get forward, which helped keep a record-setting Evanston back line on the alert.
Evanston, which entered this supersectional final with 21 shutouts in 26 matches, stayed organized in its own end, and despite some terrific work from Libertyville's Kevin Reilly, Liam O'Connell, Ryan Wittenbrink and Edmunds, this match was scoreless at the intermission.
"We knew if we did our job in our end, the guys on the other end would do what they were supposed to do," said Daniel Marks, who joined Grant Widmark and Michael Quigley in making sure keeper Brant Kym was rarely called into action.
The early exchanges of the second half were in favor of Evanston, who, on a nicely played counter by Jesus Villasenor and Erick Balthazar, required Kym to come far off his line to parry away potential trouble.
Kym saved another Balthazar attempt just before Tucker Goebeler ran onto a loose ball and unloaded a wicked low drive - only to see it blocked on the way in.
Shortly after, the best chance of the match fell to Wittenbrink, who ran onto a brilliant early ball from O'Connell - only to see his close-range shot stopped by Evanston keeper Adam Masters.
After things settled down, the Wildcats, for the first extended segment of the game, began to keep Evanston under pressure. That led to Kenny Gallagher having a chance veer wide in the 56th minute, followed by O'Connell putting one on frame.
A neatly played one-two combination with O'Connell and Edmunds created a corner in the 73rd minute, which led to two more chances.
"We knew we had one (goal) in us, and that it would come if we kept working and creating chances," Edmunds said.
The time would soon come.
After putting a series of passes across the final third to stretch and pry open the Evanston defense, Edmunds found just enough time and space to turn and find the back of the net just two minutes from time.
"It all happened so fast - I cut back, and there was an opening for me, and I just hit it low and to the left of their keeper," said Edmunds. "But to be honest, up until the moment I was pretty disappointed with my night to that point."
His teammates felt otherwise, as they raced to embrace the senior before gathering themselves to manage the final two minutes.
"It's a great night for us, and I think all of us feel like we could be the best in the state," said Edmunds.