Trojans girls soccer on wrong end of first-place shutdown at Crown Point, 4-0

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The Chesterton girls soccer team boarded the bus Tuesday afternoon fully expecting to play 80 competitive minutes in its first-place showdown at Crown Point.
The Trojans fell 60 minutes short of that expectation and lost 4-0 in a game that left no doubt as to the better team.
Crown Point (10-1 overall, 5-0 in the DAC) took over sole possession of first place, and Chesterton (7-3, 4-1) joined Valparaiso and Lake Central with one conference loss apiece.
Crown Point dominated the first half to take a 2-0 lead and did the same in the latter half of the second half.
So, how much was it just a case of the No. 7 team in the state 4A rankings performing at its best and how much was it Chesterton allowing that to happen?
“It was a bit of both,” Chesterton coach Ben Forgey said. “They were well prepared. They’re committed to playing the way they do, and they’ve done it for the past several years. They are the best team in the region.”
The Bulldogs play a relentlessly physical brand of soccer and have the depth to always keep fresh players on the field. Chesterton had its moments, but not enough of them and not enough defense to keep the Bulldogs at bay.
“You have to perform. We didn’t perform. That first half that we played was some of the worst soccer we’ve played all season,” Forgey said. “It reminds me all the way back to our preseason when we weren’t confident, and we weren’t playing together. I don’t know if it was the moment, the stage, knowing that this is the team to beat in the region, but we just didn’t play well in the first half, and it costs us the game.”
The fresh start that halftime can bring a team appeared to do so for Chesterton, which had Crown Point on retreat for long stretches, but once that wore off, the Bulldogs were there to take advantage.
“We showed for parts, mostly in the second half, that we could play with them, that we bossed around a lot of the play, especially in the first part of the second half, but that was a 20-minute period and the game’s 80 minutes,” Forgey said. “They won that game in the first half. They played us off the park. It was 2-0 at halftime and it should have been more. If we would have started the game the way we started the second half, it’s a completely different game. I’m not saying we win, but I’m not saying we lose either. But the way we played in the first half just isn’t good enough to beat a good team.”
Chesterton is two matches into six-match stretch that started last Saturday with an 8-0 loss to No. 2 Carmel. The Trojans are at home Thursday against Mishawaka Marian, the No. 1 team in the 2A rankings. Then on Tuesday, Sep. 23, No. 13 Lake Central visits Chesterton, followed by a road game vs. unranked Bishop Noll (6-2) and a road trip to No. 20 Northridge on Sep. 27.
The challenge of such a loaded schedule grows tougher if the Trojans can’t shake the residue of allowing 12 goals without scoring one in consecutive games.
“Have to reset,” Forgey said. “Have to trust that we do a lot of things right. We’ve got a lot of talent. I’ve said it before, we’re not deep. These guys could sub seven at a time and we barely have seven on our bench.”
As Forgey said, the Trojans do have talent, particularly in a senior class that includes Adey Avey (12 goals, eight assists), Claire Vrahoretis (five goals, six assists) and Eva Montes (eight goals, one assist). Freshman Lilly Duracz (five goals, one assist) is the lone non-senior who has scored more than one goal.