Hobart’s big playmakers have loud night to silence big Chesterton crowd in season-opener Brickies win 33-0

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

A big crowd turned out at Chesterton Stadium on a nice night for a football opener Friday, but it didn’t take long for the first sign of trouble for the home team to surface.
Once both teams were on the field warming up at the same time, the contrast in the size of the players was too obvious for anyone paying any attention whatsoever not to notice.
True, size isn’t everything. It can be neutralized if the smaller team has superior speed and/or executes better.
The Brickies won those battles as well.
Hobart dominated both sides of the line of scrimmage and except for a flicker of hope created by a called-back touchdown on a disputed penalty, the Brickies had their way in a 33-0 rout.
In the aftermath of the one-side contest, even the one Chesterton player who executed an extremely rare triple could not make himself derive any satisfaction from that.
Senior safety Isaiah Prater somehow slithered his way into position to block not one, not two, but three kicks on opening night. He batted two extra point attempts and one field goal to the ground, saving seven points, which in a way made him Chesterton’s offensive, defensive and special teams player of the week, but there would be no awards handed out for the home team after this one.
Offhand, can anybody remember ever seeing one player block three kicks in one game?
How did he do it?
“It wasn’t just me, it was everybody around me. I don’t even know,” Prater said of the blocks before shifting the conversation. “Not a lot to say right now, but we need to get mentally tougher, and that includes me right now because as you can see I’m crying. So, we need to get mentally tougher as a team, and I think that the sky’s the limit right now. This team has a lot of potential.”
Prater will try to figure out how to turn some of that potential into performance.
“Someone told me I need to shape up. I’m usually the one yelling at people to get mentally tougher and here I am,” Prater said. “But I’ll get mentally tougher and bring everyone else along.”
Starting against Chesterton for the third consecutive season-opener, Brickies senior quarterback Aleks Tatum completed 13 of 18 passes for 225 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 60 yards and touchdown.
A big, strong-armed passer whose quick running the ball, Tatum made good use of his two swift senior receivers who double as defensive backs.
Stephen Miller caught five passes for 140 yards and two touchdowns and also intercepted a pass. Bryce Tolliver, who has committed to play football at Northern Illinois, had six receptions for 63 yards and two touchdowns.
The Chesterton offense moved the ball into Hobart territory twice on a rough night for junior quarterback Hunter Boyd, who was intercepted three times. One of the picks came on a perfect Boyd pass that went right through the intended target’s hands. Another came when he threw to a crowded sideline, when the ball popped into the air the Hobart defender came down with it. Kevin Hayes’ interception returned for a touchdown came on a pass thrown right to him.
The Brickies had the ball first and advanced it on a 20-yard Tatum run, but ultimately turned it over on downs when Trojans senior linebacker Zane Westerlund made a tackle on fourth-and-3.
Then after five runs of 3, 4, 7, 0 and 1, Chesterton punted.
On second-and-2 from the 24, Tatum showed off his arm, Miller shook one defender with an outside fake, another D-back was caught out of position and a wide-open Miller had himself a 76-yard touchdown. Prater blocked the conversion kick.
Hobart regained possession on an interception and drove 44 yards on four plays, the last an 18-yard TD pass from Tatum, who skillfully scrambled to avoid more than one near sack on the play. Miles White’s conversion run sent the Brickies into halftime with a 14-0 lead.
After past Trojans greats from multiple sports were recognized at halftime for going into the Chesterton Athletics Hall of Fame, the home team opened the second half with the most impressive play of the night and the loudest explosion from a crowd that didn’t have a lot of cause for celebration.
Posavac took the kickoff, weaved through openings and sprinted along the right sideline for an apparent touchdown, what would have been the first kick return for a score during head coach Mark Peterson’s 14-year tenure.
Hold on, there was a flag, not an easy one to see because it blended in with the Trojan logo at midfield.
In calling holding, the ref initially appeared to signal in the wrong direction, which led to an announcement that the penalty was on Hobart, triggering another explosion from the crowd. The ref then quickly made it clear the penalty was on Chesterton and Peterson protested loudly to no avail.
If the flag had not been called, Chesterton would have drawn within 14-7, giving the game a decidedly different feel.
Later in the third period, with Chesterton still trailing 14-0, Bradley Robinson returned a punt 22 yards to the 34. But there would be no turning that into momentum. On first down, Boyd’s accurate pass went through his target’s hands and was intercepted by Miller and returned to the 23. On the second play, Tatum hit Tolliver for a 17-yard touchdown, the Brickies went up 21-0 with 6:57 left in the third quarter and forced to try to catch up through the air, the Trojans couldn’t get anything going.
The schedule doesn’t get any easier this coming Friday on the road to Morton, so the Trojans need a much better performance to stay in the game with a chance to pull off an upset at the end. As a junior, Trojans senior kicker Mace Redman won last year’s 20-19 thriller against the Governors at Chesterton with a 33-yard field goal.
He’s 6-foot-5 and weighs 205 pounds. In last year’s game at Chesterton, a 20-19 win for the home team,
The Trojans limited Cordero to three catches for 31 yards and a touchdown.