Lions fall in OT to Libertyville in Pepsi Showdown finals

 

 

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By Curt Herron

During the opening half of Sunday's Pepsi Showdown championship, Lyons Township took a real liking to the north side of Toyota Park.

The Lions saw some encouraging signs while on that portion of the field in the initial 40 minutes of their match with Libertyville.

But while coach Paul Labbato's squad would have gladly moved their play to the opposite of the pitch, the Wildcats had other ideas.

Libertyville did a great job of bottling up LT in the north end while it peppered keeper Max Hadley with a variety of good attempts.

While LT was able to weather the storm throughout the rest of regulation, it couldn't hold off Libertyville during the extra play.

The Wildcats broke through with just over a minute left in the first overtime to claim a 2-1 win on a rainy afternoon in Bridgeview.

Defender Adam Witucki was at the right place at the right time for Libertyville, putting in a close-range shot in the 89th minute.

Austin Bitta set up the score with his short try that slipped through the hands of Hadley and then on toward Witucki.

It was a satisfying win for the Wildcats (10-1), who lost in a shootout to Morton in last year's Pepsi finals at the same stadium.

Meanwhile, LT (5-3-2) saw its hopes of winning the tournament dashed in heartbreaking fashion for the second time in three years.

In 2009, the Lions battled into two overtimes before another set of Wildcats, that time from Neuqua Valley, captured a 2-1 victory.

"We just could not get out of our own end," Labbato said. "They won the first ball and the second ball and if it continues to be on your side of the field, your going to be on your heels the whole time.

"We tried our best to win one of those balls in order to get it out but as we found out in 2009, this place gets loud and you can't give instructions. You have to hope the guys on the field see the same thing that you see.

"Every time we got control of the ball, they took it back within a pass or two and that was a complete flip from the first half. They crowded us in the center mid and did a nice job of Elliot (Borge) and forced him to give it up quicker."

Labbato was impressed by the performance of the Wildcats, who return several key players from last year's Class 3A state runner-up.

And he was also encouraged to see that while the Lions have inconsistent at times, they can still hang tough with the state's best.

"Libertyville is very good while we're still finding ourselves," the LT coach said. "We win a big match and then we lose a match that we didn't think that we should have.

"This was anyone's game since we went into overtime against them. I feel that we're right there and this was a good test for us against of the state's best teams.

"It shows that we can compete and make a run but we just need to be able to press teams like we just got pressed. We have to be able to learn how that hard work pays off."

That pressure began to be applied on to LT shortly after the break and Libertyville kept applying the heat for the rest of the match.

Perhaps the only good news at that point for the Lions was that their defense did an admirable job of limiting the Wildcats' chances.

The squads exchanged threats during the first 10 minutes of the new half with Hadley deflecting away a line drive effort from Bitta.

A couple of minutes later, LT's Ben Larson fired in a free kick that wound up bouncing off of the junction of the crossbar and post.

Libertyville had a couple of other chances prior to the midway point of the half but LT's keeper stopped one and the other was wide.

With about four minutes left in regulation, the Wildcats had one more good chance to connect but Hadley halted an effort from Bitta.

"It seems like they were constantly coming at us for almost the entire second half," Hadley said. "Our guys in the back faced one round after another of people coming at them and they held them off.

"This is definitely the best team that we've played. It's also one of the hardest working teams that we've ever played. They just switched the field so quickly and we were constantly trying to catch up to them.

"I thought we played really well today. This just shows that we can go right down to the wire with one of the best teams and also that we are one of the best teams."

About two minutes into overtime, Elliot Borge drew an uncharacteristic red card following a collision with Marshall Hollingsworth.

As the Wildcat standout lay on the field for nearly five minutes, fears concerning the worst arose as he was carried off the field.

Hollingsworth's injury appears to be less serious and after wanting to get back on the field, he did so for the post-match handshakes.

The card left the Lions a man down the rest of the way, but despite that, they managed to get a good shot attempt a few minutes later.

After Sam Kaplan's free kick following the foul was stopped by Hadley, Larson followed a short time later with a liner that went high.

Both squads were getting prepared for a second 10-minute extra session when Libertyville finally broke through with 1:07 remaining.

"I thought it was a matter of time before we got one," Libertyville coach Andy Bitta said. "The only thing that I was afraid of was that on a wet surface, some kid slips and they get a breakaway and scores.

"We had the whole tempo of the game on our side and were controlling the ball. We had them pinned well and even though I thought they were stronger and bigger than us, we were quicker than they were.

"At halftime I told our guys to keep the ball on the ground and use our skill. LT is excellent in the air so we told our guys not to put it in the air, unless it's going to be a shot or a cross to the far post.

"We were really gunning for this since we were here last year. The kids have worked so hard for us to win this and now we finally got it. It's just a big relief and I feel like I'll be able to sleep tonight."

There was less drama during the opening 40 minutes, but what there was happened to be concentrated into a relatively brief time span.

Libertyville struck first, clicking in the 30th minute after Kaplan sent a free kick in front of the net and David Ruiz headed it in.

But just a short while later, Borge took a cross and responded with a scoring header of his own to even things up in the 31st minute.

"It obviously wasn't the best situation to go down to them in the first half," Borge said. "We obviously had no idea whether it would take the whole game or a few minutes to get back into it.

"I was fortunate to get a simple opportunity in front of the net after the ball had been bouncing around in the box a bit. That was a huge momentum shift to kind of get us back into the game."

LT returns to action with West Suburban Conference Silver home matches against Downers Grove North on Tuesday and York on Thursday.

On Saturday, the Lions travel to Milwaukee where they'll take on another top squad, nationally-ranked Marquette University High.