Lees, Libertyville sprint past Normal
It came so incredibly fast that sometimes Normal Community coach Wes Temples didn't even get to see it. He could only hear the reaction from the crowd.
"I'd have my back turned, talking with our offense after our score, we were excited, and the next thing I knew …" Temples said with a shrug.
The next thing he and the rest of a packed stadium at Libertyville knew was that Riley Lees was scoring. Again. And again.
The Libertyville quarterback provided every answer, every counterpoint to Normal on Saturday afternoon.
Normal dug its way out of a 21-point deficit and closed the gap to as few as 7 points twice in the second half. But on the very next play after three of Normal's second-half touchdowns, literally the very next play, Lees came up with a big-time silencer.
Lees scored on touchdown runs of 80, 41 and 75 yards in the second half to help third-seeded Libertyville pull out a 41-27 Class 7A quarterfinal victory over No. 6 Normal Community. If that weren't enough, Lees also ran in a 1-yard touchdown in the first quarter and threw 2 touchdown passes (to Brandon Rule, 26 yards and Henry Schmidt, 56 yards) in the second quarter.
Libertyville (12-0) will face No. 23 Bradley-Bourbonnais (8-3) next week on the road. Normal ends its season at 10-2.
"That's our job. We like to score quick and when it happens, we're not surprised by it at this point," said Lees, who rolled up 314 rushing yards on 30 carries. He also passed for 138 yards on 7-of-18 attempts. "Our mentality on offense is that we're going to keep chugging. We just kind of kept going.
"I think it's just the story of our team that one side of the ball picks up the other. Last week, our defense picked us (the offense) up. This week, we were helping them out."
The Libertyville defense, which spent a lot of time of the field since Lees and the offense scored in less than 30 seconds on three of their second-half possessions, was certainly tested in the second half.
Normal Community seemed to play at a different level after halftime, and a touchdown on its first possession, a 19-yard pass from Grant Price to Dakota Cremeens (8 catches, 138 yards) helped to set the tone. That cut Libertyville's lead to 21-6 with 9:35 left in the third quarter.
"That was real important," said Price, who completed 24-of-37 passes for 344 yards and 2 touchdowns. "I think that raised our confidence a little. We didn't get much going in the first half and to be able to put one up quick in the second half raised the confidence level of the whole team, not just the offense."
Lees answered on the next play with his 80-yard touchdown run but then Normal came back three minutes later and scored on a 1-yard run by Varshaun Dixon to cut the Libertyville lead to 27-13.
Twice in the fourth quarter, the Ironmen cut the Libertyville lead to just 7 points, but each time, Lees answered with another long touchdown run.
"It's so nice for (Lees) to be able to do that," Libertyville coach Mike Jones said. "But there were also a lot of other guys doing a lot of good things on those plays to make that happen. The guys up front did a great job opening the holes.
"(Normal) made some really nice plays. It was just momentum. But we kept coming back, too. Our goal has always been to win one more game than we did last year and now we have the opportunity to do that."
Last year, Libertyville lost in the Class 7A semifinals to Cary-Grove. The last time the Wildcats reached the state championship game, in 2004, they won the title.