Boys soccer: Libertyville denies Palatine's upset bid

Being the top seed in a sectional usually means an easy opening game.

That was hardly the case for Libertyville's boys soccer team.

The Wildcats survived a scare on Tuesday night, needing100 minutes to beat 16th-seeded Palatine 4-3 in two overtimes in the teams' Class 3A Palatine regional semifinal.

Patrick Graham's second goal of the game was the game-winner for top-seeded Libertyville (14-2-3), which advanced to Saturday's 3 p.m. final against No. 8 seed Mundelein. Mickey Reilly and Landon Johnson also scored for the Wildcats.

"I'm glad we won," Libertyville coach Kevin Thunholm said. "It's exactly what we thought we would get. (Palatine) played a bunch of good teams and I know they're well-coached. I knew they had nothing to lose. I think we played like we had everything to lose. We have a lot of guys that haven't played in big games like this before. We stepped up to win this game, but we've got a lot of things to work on, and we need to be better in the back. It's something we've talked about all year. We know that we get the best out of every team every game."

Palatine (6-12-3) trailed 3-2 in the final minutes. Libertyville's Connor Hay cleared the ball off the line to save a goal, but Palatine maintained pressure and scored on Tommy Swanson's header in the 79th minute.

In the second OT, Graham headed in Johnston's corner kick in the 94th minute. Six of the 6-foot-4 Graham's 11 goals this season have come on headers.

"We saw an opportunity," Graham said. "It was a great ball coming in. I just went up and put it in the back of the net."

Libertyville denied Palatine a quality scoring chance in the remaining minutes.

"We fought hard," Palatine coach Willie Filian said. "This shows that we have to have a winning first half of the season in order to get seeded higher. We had our chances, but we couldn't get down a set piece. (Libertyville) was quality team. They don't go deep into the playoffs and do what they do for nothing. If we hadn't given up a couple of soft goals, we might have gone through. We are who we are, and we did pretty well."

Libertyville took a 1-0 lead on Johnston's goal in the 16th minute. Aaron Bustamonte, who had a pair of goals in Palatine's 3-1 play-in victory over Waukegan on Saturday, tied the match in the 20th minute.

Graham put Libertyville back up in the 24th minute off an assist from Reilly. Reilly scored on a rebound in the 31st minute for a 3-1 lead.

Bustamonte scored in the 40th minute to pull the Pirates within 3-2 at the break.