Libertyville’s quick air strikes take down Warren to take North Suburban Conference title

LIBERTYVILLE – This game was contrasting styles to a new extreme. Warren’s long, time-consuming drives against Libertyville’s quick strike air attack.

Both offenses excelled, but Libertyville clinched the North Suburban Conference title with a 35-28 victory Friday. The school also announced the retirement of head coach Mike Jones before the game, but he said that was not a surprise to anyone within the program.

“That’s been in the works for six years,” said Jones, who is in his 13th season. “You just don’t know (when the last game will come). It’s kind of weird, but ready to keep going.”

Libertyville’s offense was a wide receiver showcase, even with 6-foot-5 sophomore Brock Williams out of action. The Wildcats’ first four touchdowns were 73 yards to Stevan Gavric, 55 yards to Gavric, 37 yards to Sam Seth, then 80 yards to junior blazer Blaise LaVista.

All three receivers went over 100 yards, led by Gavric with 155. QB Quinn Schambow finished the night 16-for-22 for 373 passing yards and 5 touchdowns.

“It’s been everything I’ve ever dreamed about, playing with my guys,” Seth said. “Those are my three best friends, Brock, Blaise and Stevan. Seeing us all thrive like that just means so much to me. It means so much to this football team too. Our team is so close and I think that’s why this year is special.”

Schambow is a Division I baseball player headed to Oklahoma State, but obviously found the time to work on pass patterns over the summer.

“How do you think we’re doing all this?” Seth said. “Just playing backyard ball.”

Warren started the game with a time-management masterpiece, a 17-play, 99-yard drive, all runs, that lasted more than 9 minutes. Junior Aaron Stewart took on another heavy workload, finishing with 248 rushing yards on 45 carries and all 4 touchdowns.

A muffed punt return might have been the turning point of this one. Warren would have gotten the ball back in decent field position with the score tied 14-14 midway through the third quarter. But Lavista hustled down on the punt to recover the loose ball and on the very next play, Schambow threw a high-arching pass to Seth for a 37-yard TD, giving the Cats the lead for good.

“The turnover in the special teams game was tough,” Warren coach Bryan McNulty said. “I was really excited about the way our kids competed, they had a chance to win at the end of the game there. You’ve got to be able to stop these guys a few time.”

After Seth’s TD, the Blue Devils ran three times and had to punt. That’s when LaVista caught a short pass, broke a tackle and sprinted down the visiting sideline for 80 yards to make it 28-14 with 4:15 left in the third.

The Blue Devils kept scoring, but failed to recover two onside kicks and a last-gasp by QB Jack Wolf from the 36-yard line was intercepted by Matthew Liu.

Both teams had already clinched playoff spots. Warren (5-4) is for sure in Class 8A as one of the largest schools in Illinois. Libertyville was 6A last year, but sits right at the cutoff between 6 and 7A, and could go either way when pairings are announced Saturday.

Coaching changes don’t happen often at Libertyville. Prior to Jones taking over in 2012, Randy Kuceyeski held the job for 18 years and before that, Dale Christensen for 17 years. Jones was defensive coordinator for the Wildcats’ 2004 state championship team, and as head coach, Jones and QB Riley Lees took the Cats to the 7A title game in 2015.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20241025/prep-football/libertyvilles-long-tds-beat-warren-clinch-nsc-title/