Cousins by blood, friends by choice Patrick Mochen and Louis Raffin bringing separate but equal value to Trojans football team

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The extended Raffin family, the gift that keeps on giving to Chesterton High School classrooms and fields of athletic competition, has been particularly good to the Trojans’ football program this autumn.
Cousins Patrick Mochen and Louis Raffin are among the many seniors on the offense who have given sophomore quarterback Hunter Boyd a strong support system to ease his transition to varsity football.
Whereas Raffin’s loud contributions jump off the statistical page, he is quick to point out that his cousin’s, although more subtle, have been huge.
Raffin, the fastest player in the lineup, leads receivers in catches (35), yards (518), yards per reception (14.8) and touchdowns (four).
Mochen, speedy when compared to almost anyone but his cousin, has missed some time with injuries. Still, he has nine receptions, two for touchdowns, and averages 14.11 per catch. He plays for every single special teams unit, sometimes lines up at fullback, and takes practice reps at running back, the position he played when he scored a two-point conversion on a misdirection play.
Raffin cited Mochen’s “willingness to do everything,” as a way his cousin’s value to the team can fly under the radar.
“He’s the biggest advocate for special teams,” Mochen said. “In the beginning of the year, he wanted to be on every (unit of the) special teams. He finally got the coaches to let him on and he’s shown why he should be on them. Then on offense he’s not mad wherever they put him. He’s always willing to learn new things, even if that means taking away some of his opportunities. He could stay comfortable at receiver and get more catches if he really wanted to, but instead he learns those other positions, even if that compromises what he’s doing right now, which overall helps the team more than if he were to just stay comfortable and stay at receiver and just try to catch the ball.”
During the sprints at the end of practices, Raffin and Mochen can be found next to each other, not just because they’re close friends and with 68 others share the same grandmother.
“I try to line up next to Louis just to push him a bit,” who usually finishes second to Raffin in those sprints.
Even with similar values, which cousins so often seem to share, and life experiences – Raffin is one of 13 children, Mochen one of nine – and even as close as they are, both players whiffed when asked to guess what his cousin would consider his biggest play of the season.
Raffin guessed Mochen would say his 42-yard touchdown reception in the victory vs. Valparaiso. Wrong. Mochen singled out his tackle of Crown Point’s Griffin Van Tichelt, which saved him from returning a kickoff for a touchdown when the Trojans’ trailed 7-3 in a game that would become a blowout.
“The Valpo touchdown wasn’t exactly me,” Mochen said. “If you look at the play, it was actually really good protection. Hunter basically had one of the cleanest pockets I’ve seen. I think it was Tyler (Nevious) on that side who was protecting him. It’s probably really easy for Hunter when he’s looking left and nobody from the left is coming. Tyler I remember really picked up the guy well, and Hunter put it in a spot where only I can get it, so basically, two-thirds of the play was already done.”
If it had not resulted in a touchdown, Mochen would have happily accepted 100% of the blame.
“That play scared the heck out of me,” Mochen said. “I realized Hunter was throwing to me pretty quickly, but the ball got lost in the lights and I couldn’t see it for a second and I was scared as heck and then I finally saw it again.”
The ball was underthrown a bit, so Mochen retreated to catch it at the 8-yard line, broke a tackle and scored, so he understated his role on the play.
Mochen also guessed wrong on what play Raffin would choose as his best. He thought it would be the touchdown Raffin juked his way to against Lake Central. Instead, it was the deep ball Raffin caught at the goal line at Michigan City for his first touchdown of the season.
Asked to name what his cousin would name as the play he most wishes he could have back, Raffin guessed it would be a dropped bubble screen. Wrong.
“Our very first offensive play against Crown Point. We went jet sweep and I ended up passing off the guy I was supposed to block and he ended up making the tackle,” Mochen said. “Crown Point, that’s a team where once you start to make it go downhill it screws up everything. So, basically I screwed up the first offensive possession and we never really got it back.”
Everybody knows a guy who forever is the hero of his own stories. That guy needs to take notes from Mochen on how not to be that guy. Never mind that Crown Point has a 27-game winning streak in regular season games and ranks No. 4 in the state 6A poll, the 42-7 loss to the Bulldogs was all Mochen’s fault for making a mistake on the first play.
Mochen correctly identified what Raffin would choose as the play he wishes he could do over. It came against LaPorte. Raffin got open over the middle, Boyd’s pass was slightly underthrown, meaning Raffin had to reach back while his momentum was carrying him in the other direction, not necessarily an easy thing to do. Still, Raffin got his hands on the ball and in most instances would have caught it. Instead, the ball fell to the ground, where Raffin ended up. He slammed both palms into turf.
“If I would have caught that I would have had a touchdown,” said Raffin, noting it would have been the only two-touchdown game of his career.
The cousins, both of whom have flip phones instead of iPhones, view the key to victory Friday night vs. the Slicers similarly.
“A good mindset. Don’t underestimate them. Don’t get too far ahead,” Raffin said. “That and I’d say just execution.”
Mochen: “The past couple of weeks we played bad. We played scared on special teams, on defense and on offense. We played scared in all three phases of the game. We need to reset and go 1-0 on the week.”