Libertyville quickly moves on to quarterfinals

No one associated with the Libertyville football program is complaining about the potency and efficiency of the offense.

The Wildcats are averaging 42.5 points per game and can strike faster than you can say Riley Lees, the team's speedy, big-play quarterback.

On Saturday in a 27-17 second-round Class 7A win over visiting Lincoln-Way East, Libertyville scored its first three touchdowns in 13 seconds, 1:28, and 2:04, respectively.

The third-seeded Wildcats (11-0) will host No. 6 Normal Community (10-1) next weekend in the quarterfinals.

"Our offense definitely scores quick," Libertyville cornerback Nick Neumann said. "And we give them credit for that."

If there's a potential drawback to such a quick-striking offense, it's that the defense gets very little time to catch its breath on the sideline. A quick Libertyville score means a quick water break and a short rest for the defense.

And yet, the Wildcats hardly seem to care. The defense made its fair share of big plays, too, even at the end of the game when fatigue would figure to be even more of a factor.

"Our defense works hard, we don't take time off during practice, our coaches run fast-pace practices the whole time, we lift hard. That gets us in good shape to keep making plays," Neumann said. "We'd rather be on the field. I know I would. I'm a senior and I don't have much time left to play this game. I'd rather be on the field."

It's a good thing Neumann was.

Down 21-17 with less than two minutes remaining, Lincoln-Way East was driving into Libertyville territory and seemed to have a nice rhythm going. But on third down at the 42-yard line, Neumann burst through the line on a blitz and sacked Lincoln-Way East quarterback Brandon Bauer for an 8-yard loss. It was his first sack of the season.

Then, on fourth down, Neumann came up big again, batting down a Bauer pass to return the ball back to his offense."

On the very next play, Lees sprinted his way for a 40-yard touchdown to give his team some peace-of-mind insurance and a 27-17 lead with 1:33 left.

It was Lees' only rushing touchdown of the day, but he had passed for 3 touchdowns earlier.

"He just makes plays," Libertyville coach Mike Jones said of Lees. "He threw the ball well today, he made some runs when he needed to. That's who he is."

Lees, who completed 14-of-22 passes for 268 yards and ran for 120 yards on 11 rushes, opened the game in dramatic fashion by throwing an 80-yard bomb for a touchdown to Tim Calamari on the very first play from scrimmage. On Libertyville's next possession, Lees again hit Calamari (6 catches, 191 yards) for a touchdown, this time for 63 yards on the fifth play of the drive.

That put Libertyville up 14-0 with 7:25 left in the first quarter.

Lincoln-Way East got on the board with 59.6 seconds left in the first quarter when Liam Morrissey capped a 16-play drive with a 3-yard touchdown run.

Both Libertyville and Lincoln-Way East each scored another touchdown before halftime, both on passes in the second quarter.

Lees found Henry Schmidt for a 19-yard touchdown strike early in the second quarter, and Bauer hit Logan Winkler with a 27-yard touchdown pass.

That gave Libertyville a 21-14 halftime lead.

Lincoln-Way East got a 25-yard field goal from kicker Nick Jenig to cut its deficit to 21-17 with 8:43 remaining in the game. The Griffins then put together a couple of promising drives, but were never able to fully capitalize on them to take a lead.

"Our defense has always been picking up the offense this year and it was our turn to pick them up and we did," said Bauer, who completed 20 of 32 passes for 194 yards. He also rushed for 74 yards on 21 carries. "We executed very well. But (Libertyville) was one of the toughest defenses I've ever faced. Very well-coached and every single play that we had, they had something new to throw at us. They played great, they have some big guys who can make plays and they executed very well.

"It didn't end the way we wanted to, but we fought to the end and that's all you can ask of us. Just a few little plays we had could have ended up differently and it would have been a different score."