Libertyville rolls to first-round playoff win

Libertyville's football team made short work of host Lincoln Park, winning 47-0 in a Class 7A state playoff opener Saturday night at Lane Stadium in Chicago.

The Wildcats (7-3) racked up 6 scores on their first 6 possessions with junior quarterback Riley Lees scoring 3 touchdowns on the ground and throwing for two more to put the game out of reach at 41-0 by halftime.

"It's always a good game when we're moving on," coach Mike Jones said after his Wildcats advanced to play Addison Trail (10-1) in the second round. "It's always a great thing."

Libertyville opened the scoring on its first possession with a 4-play, 47-yard drive, capped by Lees' 35-yard touchdown strike to Henry Schmidt.

"It was good to get a score quickly. It motivated everyone," Schmidt said. "I don't think they had what it took to keep up with us after."

The Wildcats were in complete command from that point. Lees scored on touchdown runs of 17, 47 and 7 yards. Sean Ferraro scored on a 1-yard run, and Nick Rossetti snatched a perfect pass on the run from Lees for 78 yards and a touchdown.

"It's a confidence builder coming off last week's loss (against Stevenson)," Lees said. "It gives us momentum in the playoffs. We're excited we get to play another week. Everything was clicking tonight. We felt good on offense and felt good about the defense getting a shutout. It was a fun game overall."

Libertyville held the Lions to 28 yards rushing in the first half and had no punts for the game.

"There's a few things that we need to clean up in terms of blitzes," Jones said. "We probably didn't pick up that as well as we should have. I think, offensively, when you look at last week to this week, we cut the number of penalties way down."

Sean Kayle closed out the scoring for the Wildcats with a 4-yard run. The Lions (7-3) were disappointed in the loss but look forward to next season.

"We have a good young team," coach Jerome Hildreth said. "We have to grow from a game like this. We got to take this game and build momentum for next season."