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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."

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