Chesterton boys soccer loses a shootout at Lake Central on night Zarek Sierazy continues strong senior season, scoring team’s lone goal on a header

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The Chesterton boys soccer team lost at Lake Central on a penalty kicks shootout after the second overtime ended with the same score as regulation ended, 1-1.
But after the match, it was a play from much earlier that ate at eighth-year Trojans coach Lucas Sabedra, and it wasn’t the foul call, which the coach and his players didn’t understand.
“They got a free kick, and Danny made a great save,” Sabedra said of freshman goalkeeper Danny Vidt. “That was a heck of a save. It was going in.”
Vidt went right and got his gloves on the ball to knock it away. The rebound was there for the taking and Lake Central’s Kaden Vickery snagged it and hammered it into the right side of the net for the game’s first goal with 21:20 left in the first half.
“This is our season in a nutshell,” Sabedra said. “We have great moments. We have a great game. It’s just the split second where we’re tuning out.”
Without that split second going to the wrong way there would not have been a shootout.
“They got a free kick. Granted, Danny had a great save. We didn’t follow, they did and that’s what matters,” Sabedra said. “The foul doesn’t matter at that point. It’s the follow-up that matters and they beat us to it. So that’s what’s frustrating because we talk about it over and over. It just seems to be those moments where we just take a second off, hesitate, watch, whatever it is. We just need to get better at that.”
Senior Zarek Sierazy tied it at 1-1 with a deep header goal with 27:15 left in the second half.
A couple of Lake Central players lost their cool on the sidelines and were assessed red cards, giving Chesterton an 11-9 manpower advantage but LC did a masterful job of pouring all their effort into the defensive end and extended the game until winning it on PKs, 4-2. LC made all four penalty kicks that it took and the visitors made two.
Cody Baughman and Zarek Sierazy were the first two in Chesterton’s PK line and they both scored, but LC goalkeeper Connor Billmeyer stopped the next two for the win.
LC (10-2-1 overall, 6-0 in the DAC) clinched at least a tie for the DAC championship and will be outright champions if it wins its final conference match at Valparaiso.
Chesterton (6-6-1, 3-3) will not have at least a share of the DAC title for the first time under Sabedra.
Still, there is a goal out there to be accomplished for this senior class, which never has won a postseason game for Chesterton.
Sectional pairings will be released Sunday night on IHSAAtv.org. Chesterton is in the seven-team Kankakee Valley sectional along with Crown Point, Hobart, host KV, Lowell, Portage and Valparaiso.
The Trojans next play at Concord on Saturday and then wrap up the regular season with matches against teams they might face in the sectional, at Hobart on Sep. 29, and at home vs. Portage on Oct. 1.
Sabedra is happy to have a few more games before sectional play to enable the team to blend in recent additions.
Midfielders Arnulfo Marquez, a sophomore who opted to play a season-and-a-half for a soccer academy in Indianapolis while attending Chesterton until joining the team in midseason. Daniel Lule, a senior who transferred from Portage, recently was cleared to play after regaining enough strength in the wake of ACL surgery.
“We’ve added a couple of pieces,” Sabedra said. “We’re figuring out what the right combination of guys is, but it gives us depth now. So, if anyone is getting tired, I feel comfortable bringing guys off the bench who are hungry to play.”
Sierazy has been the Trojans’ most productive player this season and leads the team in goals (14) and assists (7).
“He had a heck of a game today, the best game I’ve seen Zarek play in a long time,” Sabedra said. “He’s working hard on defense, beating guys 1 on 1, was in the right areas. We were finding him in space that he was creating.”
Sabedra also praised Vidt, saying, “He took over the starting spot today, probably going to keep going with him. He had a good game.”
Vidt looked back on LC’s goal in the first half.
“That was the hardest shot I probably had to make a save on this season so far,” he said of the free kick portion of the play. “It was unlucky, but next time we’re going to get that down with my center backs, communicate, talk. Everything’s going to be butter.”
Vidt stopped half the shots in the penalty kick phase and shared what’s it like being the goalie in that situation.
“It’s so much pressure,” Vidt said. “You have your whole team on the line cheering for you. It’s intense, enjoyable. The keeps are there, just the keeps, they have to lock in.”
The two goalkeepers shared a few words before the kicks started flying at them.
“I used to play with him,” Vidt said of Billmeyer. “He’s a great guy and a good keep too.”
Vidt was on the wrong end of the deciding phase of the game, and had no trouble discussing it.
“Keeper is more than just being a goalkeeper to stop shots with your hands. It’s mental,” he said. “It’s all a mindset game. If you stop a shot, everyone’s going to start cheering, but as soon you let one in you have to pick it up turn around and give your best effort until the last second. You have to look forward, never look behind. You have to grasp for the future and reach.”
The Trojans’ seven-year reign atop the DAC is over, and they’re looking forward to improving in the remaining three games leading up to the postseason.