Pirates fall in regional championship match to Wildcats

 

 

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By Curt Herron

Willie Filian had only seen his Palatine squad allow three goals during a match on a handful of occasions this year.

But what took the hall of fame coach by surprise was not so much the trio of goals, but rather, how they were scored.

Palatine allowed three scores on set pieces to Libertyville in Saturday's finals of the Class 3A Libertyville Regional.

That accounted for all of the scoring as the Wildcats claimed a 3-0 win which advances them to the Palatine Sectional.

After connecting off of a corner kick in the first half, Libertyville went with a different approach in the final half.

Two similar throw-ins, less than five minutes apart, produced the other scores for the hosts, who improved to 17-3-1.

The victory earned Libertyville a date with Fremd (13-5-2) in Tuesday's 5 p.m. sectional match on the Pirates' field.

Palatine (13-9-1), who allowed one or no scores in 15 matches, had only yielded three or more goals on four occasions.

"Probably the most disappointing part about this game is that we dedicate half an hour to 45 minutes of every practice that we run to set pieces," Filian said. "We believe that it's one of our strengths.

"Even though we put a lot of time into set pieces, we had trouble with them all season. We made a lot of chances with them but getting that final touch to finish was a problem for us.

"I told the guys who are coming back that one of things that they need to remember is that we got beat on three set pieces. That's how the majority of goals are scored in high school soccer.

"They beat us at our own game, but not only that, then you're chasing them all over the place since they have good, quality players. What I was really impressed on their side is their level of fitness.

"In the first 15 or 20 minutes we had the better run of play but it was a matter of time before the game settled in and our guys started running out of gas and their kids found their rhythm and space."

Although the veteran Pirate coach saw plenty of positives during the season, not finishing consistently was a problem.

"Seniors like Jon Clark, Jack Reynolds and Tim Murphy did a great job of leading us and seniors like Piotr Karpierz and Jason Palmas helped make us into a solid team," Filian said.

"The one thing we lacked all season was that consistent edge to our game to where we could finish. We lacked that difference maker in the offensive third, making set pieces more important.

"We put together some really good games but the inconsistencies caught up with us. The majority of our losses were winnable games where we couldn't find the net or were inconsistent in the back."

Libertyville started to apply real pressure on the Pirates midway through the first half and its efforts soon paid off.

A shot by Joey Ruppert was deflected, resulting in a Marshall Hollingsworth corner, which was cleared by Kyle Clancy.

Not long after that, Hollingsworth found Ruppert on a corner and the latter flicked in a short try in the 26th minute.

That's how things remained at the break and Palatine then looked for the equalizer in the first part of the final half.

Jon Clark sent an early try over the net, Josh Lee was denied on a liner and Jack Reynolds saw a long free kick halted.

The Wildcats struck again in the 62nd minute when Adam Witucki sent in a throw-in that went in off of a Pirate defender.

Then in the 66th minute, Libertyville found the net again, with Nick Vogel connecting off of another Witucki throw-in.

"We've been working on our set pieces and trying to get some goals off of those since you know that you don't get many opportunities and you have to put them away when you can," Witucki said.

"We came out a little slow in these past two games but were able to hold our ground and get a few goals in the second half. We're really hoping to get back downstate and do what we did last year."

While Filian was surprised by the trio of goals scored on set pieces, his counterpart also didn't expect such a thing.

"I'm really surprised that we scored three goals like that since we aren't the tallest team," Wildcat coach Andy Bitta said. "But we have real good skill and we some kids who can jump well.

"I think we just caught them off-balance and maybe they didn't think that we could get to those balls. But we just beat them to the ball and were able to put them into the back of the net.

"Normally we don't score a lot off of set pieces, although we try. So to win a regional by scoring on three set plays is a nice surprise for us."

Libertyville made a long postseason run a year ago, which concluded in a double overtime loss in the state finals to Boylan.

The veteran Wildcat coach is hoping that his squad is capable of a similar finish, but knows that it won't be an easy task.

"Don't get me wrong, we had a very good defense last year, but I think we're better this year," Bitta said. "They also start our offense. Instead of just clearing it out, we build from the back.

"We have so many juniors back from last year and now that they're seniors, they're bringing these younger kids along. That experience really helps since we have five sophomores on the varsity.

"Now we have to worry about Fremd and they're an excellent team. If you start looking ahead now, you're going to get beat. It's anybody's game now and any of these teams can win the sectional."