Boys soccer: Libertyville bides its time, impresses against Lyons

Libertyville was patient in starting its boys soccer season in the highly regarded Northside College Showcase hosted by New Trier on Saturday.

It was worth the wait for the Wildcats, who ended last season as the Class 3A state runner-up to Naperville North.

The Wildcats are certainly a different team now, notably starting the season without All-American Ryan Wittenbrink. He's now playing at Indiana.

But Libertyville does have a lot of familiar faces in the lineup, and that clearly showed in a 4-1 victory over Lyons in Winnetka.

The Wildcats had for different goal-scorers: Tanner Kelly, Gabriel Koscuich, Mickey Reilly and Michigan-commit Evan Rasmussen. Hunter Lynch made 4 stops in his first varsity start in goal for Libertyville.

"I was impressed, and I would like to see us finish more," Libertyville coach Kevin Thunholm said. "I think they were too anxious to play. They've been beating each other up since June 1. These guys know each other and have played together. We were ready to take it out on somebody else."

Kelly scored the opening Libertyville goal in the 15th minute at the back post after taking a head-ball pass from Patrick Graham.

Reilly scored on a diving header for the second tally in the 43rd minute for the Wildcats. His strike came after a Jack VanDixhorn corner kick, which Brandon Murphy redirected the ball over to Reilly.

"I saw Brandon on the left and I knew he was going to play it in," said the 5-foot-6 Reilly. "He just took his touch and then I just got across the 12 and the 6. Then I just nicked it in, side netting."

Rasmussen scored the third goal in the 55th minute off an assist from Reilly. Kosciuch provided the final Wildcats score four minutes later.

Lyons (1-2) managed to score in the 73rd minute after a foul in the penalty area as Tim Slusarczyk found the back of the net on a penalty kick.

Though this was the tournament opener for Lyons, the Lions already have 2 losses - albeit against two of the top teams in the state, first Naperville North and now Libertyville.

"In that situation and that space, (Libertyville) was overwhelming," Lyons coach Paul Labbato said. "We tried to play the ball a little bit and within one pass we had two guys on every player. It was just hard to keep the ball. We were under pressure and we couldn't keep the ball out of our own end. Then the pressure mounted. It just resulted in shots, corner kicks, throw-ins and it was just relentless. That's what they do, and hats off to them. We just couldn't figure things out."