Wildcats top Corsairs in sectional final

With 10 minutes remaining in the first half of last Thursday's sectional final, the Carmel High School boys soccer team celebrated what it thought was a go-head goal by Edwin Lagunas.

But the referee's flag was raised and the goal was disallowed for offside. Despite creating some fine opportunities, the Corsairs were unable to find the net again.

Then, in the sixth minute of the second sudden-death overtime, Carmel's season came to an end when Libertyville's Brad Novak hit a ball over the defense to teammate Alvaro Castro, who side-footed the ball into the corner of the net. The 1-0 victory gave the Wildcats the Libertyville Sectional title and stopped Carmel (17-6-2) two games shy of its IHSA Elite Eight goal.

"It just didn't happen for us tonight," Corsairs head coach John Halloran said. "Both keepers made some saves that kept their team in the game. That's football (soccer)."

Libertyville, who ended 14-6 after losing to Barrington in Monday's supersectional at Benedictine, defeated Carmel 1-0 when the teams met during the regular season, and Carmel players had been looking forward to the opportunity to get their revenge.

Neither team offered too many surprises. Libertyville looked to play the ball long to its talented forward line led by Castro.

"We knew they played three forwards," Halloran said. "We talked to the kids about Castro before the game. We knew he was a good player, and we contained him for 93 minutes."

Carmel tried to play its customary possession soccer and look for its top marksman Lagunas, who was hounded for much of the night by Libertyville's scrappy defender Andrew Stone.

Halloran said Libertyville's defense and the artificial turf took his team out of its game.

"It would have been nice to get the ball to our forwards' feet a little more," he said. "But they put pressure on us and made us clear the ball long (from the back). With the surface, the ball bounces higher and it's tough to play a real possession game. We play a nice possession game when we have that opportunity. It made it a little more difficult to get that going. But (Libertyville) played on the same surface."

Carmel goalkeeper Joey Ferrari and his Libertyville counterpart, Jim Palac, each made a few game-saving stops in the second half.

In the first overtime, the Corsairs' John Zeffery created two fine scoring opportunities. The first bounced off the post, and the second came at the end of Zeffery's 50-yard run with the ball and was saved by Palac.

After the contest, there were a lot of tears on the Carmel sideline. The loss meant an end to a fine season and to the careers of 12 seniors, all of whom saw quality playing time.

"This is a real good group. They were committed in the weight room in the offseason and at open gyms," said Halloran, who coached four of the kids for three seasons. "Some of these guys put in over 100 days in the weight room between last season and this season. They put the time and effort in. It's a tough thing because you're basically telling them you're working for an unknown. You can do all that work and (losing in the sectional) can still happen. I'm proud of them. It just didn't go our way (at the sectional)."

Zeffery, the senior midfielder, also spoke about the team's commitment off the field.

"It was a good season," he said. "We had high expectations and we worked from the day we lost last year until the day this season started, getting up at 5:15 every morning to go work out. We started the season slow but caught fire and started playing like we should. We had a little hot streak (just before and during) the playoffs. We just couldn't put it away against Libertyville."