Ellie Rebmann has made plenty of big decisions over the past eight months.
The Libertyville senior committed in September to play soccer at Milwaukee.
A few months later, she decided to play high school soccer for the first time after three years concentrating on honing her skills with a club team.
And for the Wildcats, Rebmann moved from her longtime position on defense to become a striker for the first time in her career.
“Yeah, I guess you can say there have been some pretty big changes for me, but so far so good,” she said.
Rebmann has been quite good this season, and she was again during the Class 3A Glenbrook North Sectional championship game on Friday. She scored two breakaway goals as second-seeded Libertyville’s beat top-seeded Fremd 2-0 in Northbrook.
Rebmann has 21 goals and 17 assists for the Wildcats (17-2-2), who won their third straight sectional title and will play in the New Trier Supersectional against the host Trevians (23-3-1) at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
“I’m having such a fun time, and that’s the main reason I decided to play my senior season for Libertyville,” Rebmann said. “I knew some of the girls on the team, and they told me what a great time they have. So I was looking for something more relaxing than club, especially after making my college decision.”
Fremd (17-4-1) could have done without Rebmann on the other side. The Vikings had trouble containing her speed, strength and skills on holdup plays when the ball reached the striker.
However, Fremd was really in trouble when Rebmann was able to power past defenders with the ball at her feet and only the goalkeeper to beat.
That happened in the eighth minute of the game when Libertyville goalkeeper Kate Hopma punted the ball 20 yards past midfield toward Rebmann, who was being closely guarded by two defenders.
When the fight for the ball was over, both defenders were on the ground, and Rebmann was alone heading toward Fremd’s goal. She calmly slotted the ball into the bottom-left corner to give Libertyville a 1-0 lead.
Fremd forced Hopma to make five first-half saves, but none of the chances seem to bother her.
Libertyville appeared poised to wrap up the game early in the second half when Molly Koch was pushed down in Fremd’s box on a play that resulted in a penalty kick. But goalkeeper Emily Gordon saved the PK attempt by Jenna Krakowski to keep the Vikings in it.
“We could have done a better job of holding onto the ball and moving it better to help our chances of scoring more,” Libertyville coach Daniel DePaz said.
Rebmann scored the second goal with 5:24 left. She took a pass from the wing from Tess McGormley and once again beat a pair of defenders. She scored in the lower-right corner this time.
“I didn’t know how moving to offense would work for me, but it’s sure fun to score goals,” Rebmann said. “I got a lot of kidding from my (FC United) club teammates because they had never seen me up front either, but I think I’m showing I can hold my own.”
DePaz is not surprised Redmann is having success on offense.
“She’s the type of player who can succeed anywhere she plays because she has so many skills and is such an unselfish player,” he said. “We needed some more offense, and she’s fit right in for us.”
Darren Day is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.