Lacrosse: Neuqua Valley boys, Benet girls win big to reach state tournament

The boys and girls lacrosse supersectional twin-bill that took place at Streamwood High School had a familiar feel to each game Tuesday night.

Both games had one school making their first Elite Eight appearance going up against a school that was back in the supersectional round after missing out a spring ago.

The boys contest could have easily been renamed the Wildcat supersectional between Neuuqa Valley and Libertyville.

They both also received an extra benefit when the sun replaced the rainy, overcast skies that the girls game dealt with earlier. Neuqua successfully broke away from a Libertyville squad that was playing their program's initial IHSA Elite Eight in posting a 17-6 victory to earn a ticket to Hinsdale Central for a Thursday evening semifinal against Glenbard West.

It marks the third final four berth for Neuqua Valley (16-8) in the past five spring seasons.

After a three-goal rally by Libertyville (17-5) that saw freshman Connor Luxom even things up at 3 just 71 ticks into the second, sophomore Ben Stefanski began the decisive Neuqua response with a score at the 9:32 mark which put them ahead to stay.

Three straight goals from junior attacker Jonah Frank (two in the second quarter) added some extra space which gave them a 7-3 advantage 47 seconds into half number two.

By the time he tallied again in the third, the Neuqua lead had grown 11-3 with 4:04 left and 13-3 at the start of the fourth after the fourth of Cary George's five scores at the 1:48 mark of the period.

Frank, who finished with 7 goals on the night, credited his team's ability to regain energy after seeing their early lead go by the wayside.

"Once we started scoring (again) our bench really got up (and) we started getting hot,“ Frank said. ”Once we get hot, we don't stop. It's amazing to get back to state. I can't wait. I think we have a chance."

Kyle Carollo joined Luxom with two goals each for Libertyville.

In the girls contest, Benet took control of a rain-coated Millennium Field pitch in their match with first-time qualifier Lockport by — -pun intended — scoring Earley and often.

Notre Dame recruit Shannon Earley tallied a pair of scores in the game's first two minutes which became part of an 8-goal evening to pave the way for the Redwings to earn a 21-7 win to earn their first final four ticket since 2021.

They will face Lake Forest (20-5), a 9-6 winner over Crystal Lake Central (20-4), in Friday's second semifinal at Hinsdale Central.

"We talked about (how) our last couple of games (we) haven't been on our best right away, so being able to come out early and push the pedal to the meda," Earley said while holding the supersectional plaque.

"So being able to put it together this game before state is what we've been looking for."

After Earley's first two goals, junior Gigi Kurelko (5 goals) and sophomore Claire O'Brien had goals wrapped around a pair of Isabella Gleason scores that had Benet (22-2) ahead 7-0 with just over five and a half minutes gone. The Redwings never looked back as it led 9-1 after one and 12-2 at half.

Madeline Trapp added 4 goals for the Redwings while Junior Gianna Frieri paced the Porters (15-7) with a four score game of her own.