If time flies when you're having fun, then for the boys soccer team, time must have been going by at warp speed the week beginning on October 30.
After a thrilling triple-overtime win Saturday, October 30, against Highland Park at Sectionals, a 4-1 win over Maine West at Supersectionals on November 2, a quadruple-overtime win against Naperville North in the State Semifinals on November 5 and a hard-fought loss to Rockford Boylan in the State Final on November 6, the team has been on cloud nine.
"We were all just pretty pumped up," said senior Miles McNeir. "We were all on top of the world."
After the OT win against Highland Park, the team began riding a popularity high not commonly seen for the boys soccer team.
"It felt really good because the soccer team doesn't get that much attention," said McNeir.
The hype and talk about the team grew to a level above and beyond what any team at LHS had experienced since the football team went down to Champaign in 2004. It was the first trip the soccer team had made to the State Finals since 1986 when the Wildcats took second against Collinsville.
The State Semifinals
Matched against a 22-2-2 Naperville North team virtually playing a home game (their campus being a little over mile away from host North Central College's stadium), the first half of the Semifinal was more like a tennis match than a soccer game, with both teams going back and forth up the field; however, unlike a tennis match, scoring was non-existant.
Less than five minutes into the second half, Wildcat midfielder Jose Ibarra-Luna put one past the Huskies goal keeper. But the Huskies then rallied back almost a minute later to knot the game up.
However, not long after the game tying goal, the Wildcats' Joey Ruppert got ejected after being given his second yellow card of the match. Ruppert got his second yellow card in the process of tackling a Naperville North player as he was running down the sideline with the ball. The Huskie sideline cheered in response to Ruppert's card however the Libertyville sideline, specifically head coach Andy Bitta, were livid in response to Ruppert's card.
"I really think that was poor officiating," said Bitta. "A young man has one yellow and you're gonna give him another yellow, and if his team advances he's gonna have to sit out the State Championship game? All [the referee] had to do was look at his card and see that [Ruppert] had a yellow. He could have walked down to the linesman, had a little discussion there, and then run back to both boys and say, 'Hey, if you do it again, I'm gonna red card you.' That's how he should have handled it."
After Ruppert's ejection, which did not put LHS down a man, the Wildcats kept fighting and finally broke through with roughly 12 minutes left in the game. Junior midfielder Marshall Hollingsworth ran through the Huskie defense and buried a shot, tying the game 2-2 after Naperville North took the lead earlier in the half.
The game would stay tied up through the end of regulation time and a first 10-minute overtime period. Then, midway through the second OT, McNeir found the ball on a rebound off of a Hollingsworth shot deflected towards the far post and put the ball past the Huskies' keeper, sending the Wildcats to the State Championship.
The State Championship
The next day, the Wildcats took on Rockford Boylan, who defeated Edwardsville in the other Semifinal match-up.
With Ruppert sitting out the game due to his two yellow cards against Naperville North, the Wildcats were without their second-leading scorer and a force up front.
As the match went on, it seemed like more Wildcats would be joining Ruppert on the bench.
Midfielders Marshall Hollingsworth and Jose Ibarra-Luna were both called for yellow cards in the first half. A Boylan player was also given a yellow card.
Standout senior MIles McNeir, who led the team in goals this year, started the scoring early in the first half on a short shot inside the box.
However, Boylan came back later in the half to tie the game 1-1.
Boylan would then score again in the second half off a penalty kick, called for a play that made the Wildcat sideline--and faithful fans--go ballistic.
Wildcat defender Landon Eyre was chasing Boylan forward Victor Zamora down the far sideline. As Zamora got dangerously close to the goal box, Eyre pulled even with him and made what appeared to be a clean tackle.
"Landon saw their forward breaking toward the goal, and he felt like he had to knock the ball away," said Bitta. "I did not think that was a penalty. Landon cleanly won the ball, and their player looked like he got shot or something."
But the Wildcats, like they did all season, refused to give in. In a familiar do-or-die scenario, LHS pushed the game into overtime off a goal by junior Griffin Pills in the closing minutes of the second half when Pills kicked a little floater past the Boylan keeper.
Overtime was a familiar situation for the Wildcats over the course of the season. Their only OT loss came in penalty kicks against Morton in the Pepsi Showdown, where the Wildcats rallied back to score the game-tying goal with a mere two seconds left on the clock.
"I had a lot of confidence that we may be able to just put one more [goal] in," said junior mid-fielder Marshall Hollingsworth.
After the first scoreless overtime, the Wildcats seemed to have the advantage in the stamina department. Boylan seemed tired for the duration of the overtime: they cleared the ball seemingly every oppertunity they had.
But in the end, stamina non-withstanding, Boylan was the one to put in the golden goal.
Boylan midfielder Homero Jordan scored less than ten minutes into overtime. Jordan split the Wildcat defenders right up the middle on a breakway, made a little deke with his feet, and put the ball past keeper Andrew Bitta.
"Defenders and midfielders lunged in on the forward, then a couple guys missed the clear when the ball was passed through the box," said Hollingsworth.
As Boylan began to celebrate, some of the Wildcats simply broke down in defeat.
"I just layed down," said McNeir. "It was pretty depressing."
The championship was Boylan's first state title in soccer.
"I can't take anything away from Rockford-Boylan," said Bitta. "They played a real smart game."
2nd Place
Boylan's OT goal may have given the Wildcats the loss, but the season and post-season as a whole was a win for the team.
Upon returning to school following the loss to Boylan, the team was honored with a 'championship march', a new tradition initiated by Principal Marina Scott.
The march was led by the Wildcats pep band and followed by Scott, athletic director Briant Kelly, the team (with its state trophy) and then the coaches.
The march around the hallways gave students an opportunity to get involved in the celebration, with the parade passing by every classroom in the school. Teachers assembled their students in the halls so they could cheer the team on as they went past their room.
"I'm glad they had it because 2nd in state is a great accomplishment," said junior Matt Tassler. "They deserved to be honored like that."
Overtime loss aside, the whole team walked away with a sense of accomplishment over their season and run in the playoffs.
"It was an unbelievable and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said Hollingsworth. "I won't ever forget it."