Libertyville advances to supersectionals

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:12PM

Sam Kaplan and his teammates returned to the formula of defense and dangerous deliveries into the box that was so successful early in the season. Now Libertyville is returning to the supersectionals for the first time in three years.

Kaplan served a free-kick from 23 yards into the six-yard box and watched as the ball ping-ponged around before it glanced off teammate Jose Ibarra-Luna and into the goal with 2:06 left in quadruple overtime to lift the No. 8 Wildcats to a 1-0 victory Saturday over Highland Park in the Class 3A playoffs and their first sectional title since 2007.

"The ball was coming and it was touching a lot of people and hit me and then went off a defender," Ibarra-Luna said. "The ball [bounced around] like crazy, you just got to try to hit it and put it in."

Kaplan originally was going to attempt a more direct route to goal. But coach Andy Bitta suggest he put that ball into the mixer instead.

"At first I was going to shoot," Kaplan said. "But [coach] Bitta told me to play it into the danger area, which was smarter with us going into the wind. So I just played it in hoping someone would hit it or deflect it off someone and it worked."

The defensive front of Kaplan Landon Eyer, Andy Loska and Adam Witucki stood strong for Libertyville, which has not allowed a goal in its last 198 minutes of soccer. Goalie Andrew Bitta made 12 saves for the Wildcats, including a fantastic double-save on long shot and rebound attempt by Highland Park's Francesco Moore and Ricardo Rodriguez.

"We've got the edge back that we had at the beginning of the season when we undefeated for 12 or 13 games," Bitta said.

Giants goalie Aaron White (19 saves) had a phenomenal game, with several specular stops, to backstop an impressive performance by Konrad Kucharski and his fellow defenders Patrick Smith, Kyle Ostrowski and Jared Cohen

"We put everything we had on the field," Kucharski said. "Defensively we played really well, Aaron had a great game. [Libertyville] played really well as well, it was just unlucky [for us]."

Highland Park (15-6-6) was gunning for its first sectional title since 1976. Libertyville (19-3-2) will face Maine West in a supersectional 6 p.m. Tuesday at Loyola University.

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