Libertyville bands together, tops Zion-Benton
There might not be a lot of genetic connections on Libertyville's football team, but a family atmosphere has gotten the Cats through a pretty rugged season after the school finished state runner-up in last fall's 7A playoffs.
"We've had a lot of tough breaks and injuries, and overall a lot of struggles," said Cats senior quarterback Jack Ruskell, who had plenty to do with Friday night's 17-7 North Suburban Conference victory at Zion-Benton.
Libertyville did what it had to do and with the win made itself playoff eligible as it improved to 5-4 overall while finishing 4-3 in league play.
"We were kind of worried how things were going when we struggled early in the season. But since the beginning we've preached 'family'. It's made us a real tight group. Our struggles brought us together and everything has been working out."
The next thing Libertyville hopes works out is getting that at-large berth in next week's playoffs. Their fate will be determined Saturday evening when the pairings are announced.
Meanwhile, against Zion-Benton, it was a lackluster first half as both teams headed to intermission deadlocked at 0-0.
But then, you could just sense a big play was about to bust open and help jump start Libertyville.
Sure enough, with Zion-Benton blitzing a lot on third and long situations, Ruskell exploited it by tossing a 63-yard screen pass to junior fullback Brendan Bazar, who promptly took it down the right sideline to the house and the Cats took a 7-0 lead just 56 seconds into the third quarter.
"They stopped me pretty good on the rushing but I think we we're luring them in," said Bazar, who caught 4 Ruskell passes to the tune of 144 yards. "We knew they were going to come at us. But with their blitzing, it freed me open to make a play."
Bazar actually accounted for another big play when he hauled in a 65-yard screen pass from Ruskell and raced down the left side, this time for a score and 17-0 lead with 5 ticks left in the third frame.
Sandwiched in between was a 23-yard field goal by junior place kicker Matt Rudolphi at the 5:34 mark of the third.
Zion-Benton (3-6, 2-5) ruined the shutout after quarterback DeAndre Green hit Dinario Hickman for a 6-yard scoring strike with a minute left in the contest to provide the final margin of victory for Libertyville.
The Cats' defense has been a juggernaut most of the season and Friday night was no different to the tune of 7 sacks on Green, two by junior defensive lineman Brendan Cook.
Cook also picked off a second quarter Green pass, while picks were also collected by senior Nathan Boe and junior Alex Stanulis.
Junior linebacker Jon Schlapper also recovered a second-quarter fumble.
Ruskell finished 12-for-22 for 254 yards and the two scores while senior running back Jason Tse led Libertyville in rushing with 56 yards on 7 carries.
"We've had some tough finishes this season but you make your own fate," added Ruskell. "We really haven't played a full game yet."