Chesterton secures first girls soccer sectional title since 2020, led by Adey Avey’s hat trick and Claire Vrahoretis’ productive night

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Another hat trick for Adey Avey. Claire Vrahoretis scoring a goal with her head, the next with her foot, assisting another. A big goal by Eva Montes. These Chesterton senior soccer players have been there, done that.
But the 8-4 victory the Trojans scored vs. Portage on Saturday night at Brickie Stadium came with a cherry on top: a sectional championship trophy.
A senior class that eighth-year Coach Ben Forgey would not trade for any other in the region brought home the school’s first sectional title in girls soccer since 2020, when Addy Joiner was a senior.
“We earned our way to the sectional final, we won the sectional final and the girls deserved it,” Forgey said of Chesterton’s 13th sectional championship in the sport.
The crowd was treated to a pair of superstars, one from each team, putting on a show. Portage sophomore Mali Kennedy, who scored a pair of goals, didn’t have as much help as Avey, so Chesterton moves on.
Avey’s third goal was a thing of soccer magic, a dribbling exhibition worthy of the Harlem Globetrotters. She wasn’t quite at midfield when she started her journey toward the goal, stopping and starting, dashing and darting, leaving multiple defenders in her wake, getting them to follow the ball and then tapping it in the other direction. When she needed an extra burst of acceleration, she summoned it, putting the fatigue of a phyical game on hold. Her final act of magic led her away from the left sideline and delivered her in front of the goal, where she booted the ball into the net.
Think: Barry Sanders weaving his way through big bodies and flooring it, Allen Iverson driving through the lane making defenders bump into each other.
An amazing goal from an amazing athlete. One more memory for sophomore teammates who look up to and learn from the seniors.
“Adey’s so good,” said sophomore Campbell Gingrich, who scored a goal of her own in the first half. “I aspire to control the ball the way she can one day. I think she has always been like that, but she has the drive and the work ethic to make it even better.”
A drive and work ethic that Avey models for younger players.
Lorelai Simmons, another sophomore, scored a goal in the second half, assisted by Vrahoretis.
“I was looking for that through ball all game and it just hadn’t been working, so it was so gratifying to finally get that goal,” Simmons said. “I tried my best to aim it to a corner and I’m so happy it worked out. It was scary for a second because it bounced off that post and I thought it was going to come back out. I’m really glad it didn’t.”
Vrahoretis being the one who played the ball to her made the goal even sweeter for Simmons.
“Claire’s incredible,” Simmons said. “I really look up to her a lot. She has helped me grow as a player and observing her helps my game and makes me want to do better. I’ve learned how to be composed on the ball. I was panicky at the start of the season being an upcoming varsity player, but watching how calm she is on the ball gave me that confidence as well.”
Before the season, Forgey expressed a hope that seniors would lead the way and that enough sophomores would join freshman Lilly Duracz in being ready for varsity competition. The sectional trophy that made the bus ride back to Chesterton is proof of how that turned out.
“That’s kind of the way the whole season has gone. We have some of the best seniors in the region and we have some eager and talented younger players too,” Forgey said. “It’s just a great scenario where we’ve got these great leaders and seniors who are showing our younger players because it’s going to bode well for the future.”
For the seniors, the future is now, or to be exact Thursday at Crown Point for a regional semifinal match with the Bulldogs at 6 p.m.