No matter what sport, high school referees are easy targets. This season, it took all of one week for area boys soccer coaches to be up in arms with questionable officiating. "We lost 2-1 to Lake Forest on Saturday, and we had two goals called back because of offside calls," Deerfield coach Elliott Hurtig said. "We knew for sure that one of them was not even close to being offside, and then we looked at the video.

"The video was clear that neither of the goals were offside. Those calls impacted the score and outcome of the game." Lyons coach Paul Labbato understands Deerfield's pain. Confusion during a yellow-card substitution led to an apparent Lyons goal being disallowed and halted play for more than 10 minutes against Neuqua Valley on Saturday. The game ended in a 2-2 tie. "I believe we as a coaching community need to do a better job of recruiting current and former players to get involved as referees," Hurtig said. "As former players, we know what it takes character-wise to stand up to the pressure, to see the game clearly and to have the ability to control a game." Hurtig is working with Illinois High School Association soccer referee assignor Randy Brickman on a referee feeder system. "The game is too fast and intricate for referees who have not played soccer," Young coach Ian McCarthy said. "We need to encourage young, former players to get licensed. And we as coaches need to be patient while they learn the craft." Size does matter: All eyes will be on Benet this week as it competes in the prestigious Best of the West tournament in Naperville. While Naperville North and Neuqua Valley opened the season holding the top two spots in the Tribune's preseason boys soccer rankings, Benet was the program everyone was talking about. After a lackluster effort by the …More