Seniors Adey Avey and Eva Montes lead Chesterton to 2-1 sectional semifinal victory over Valparaiso to vault Trojans into a sectional final vs. Portage at Brickyard Stadium on Saturday, 7 p.m.

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

The random draw for IHSAA sectionals means the two best teams in the bracket often meet before the final and that was the case with the 3A Hobart sectional, which had Chesterton and Valparaiso meeting in a semifinal Thursday night.
Valparaiso played well and made the Trojans earn a 2-1 come-from-behind victory that advanced them to a sectional championship match vs. Portage on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Brickyard Stadium.
As usual, Chesterton’s strong senior class, led by Adey Avey, played a huge role in the Trojans taking down the next-best team in the sectional.
After Valpo took a 1-0 lead into halftime, Avey scored a heads-up goal to tie it 1-1 five minutes in the second half.
Then on the game’s decisive play later in the half, she showed a skill that has been a bigger part of her game than ever this season: passing.
Avey looked ahead and didn’t let a ton of traffic in the middle of the field deter her from leading speedy Eva Montes with a perfect high-velocity pass and Montes hammered it into the net to give Chesterton a 2-1 lead that stood up.
“I look up and I see multiple defenders,” Avey said. “I look at her and I know she’s making that run, so I slip it through. She’s so athletic, and so amazing and I love her so much. Our chemistry is just unmatched on the field.”
Montes agreed.
“We have played since Duneland Rec League together and we always play club together, so we play together really well,” Montes said. “She always plays really good balls into me.”
Avey leads the Trojans in goals (21) and assists (13), Montes has 12 goals and three assists, and Claire Vrahoretis is third with 11 goals and second with 10 assists. Freshman goalkeeper McKenzie Cochran had another strong game in goal.
Avey didn’t need anybody’s assistance to score her game-tying goal. It came after she was called for offside, when she took advantage of her opponent’s confusion.
“I saw the goalie touch it to her teammate and the teammate was just standing there, the ref put his hand out and I was like, ‘OK, this is live.’ So I just stole it, and the defender said, ‘What are you doing? Stop!’ But I just kicked in the goal just in case,” Avey said.
Just in case Avey wasn’t seeing things when she thought the ref signaled that the ball was in play. She saw it correctly and the goal tied the game so that Avey and Montes could win it later.
The win pushed the Trojans record to 14-4 heading in a rematch with a Portage squad they defeated, 9-0, on Oct. 1 in Chesterton. On that day, Avey and classmate Claire Vrahoretis each had a hat trick, Montes scored two goals and sophomore Lorelai Simmons also scored.
Portage earned a spot in the championship match by defeating Merrillville 12-0 Thursday. Portage is 9-7 overall and went 3-4 in the DAC, finishing fifth. Chesterton was second with a 6-1 record, finishing behind only Crown Point, undefeated in DAC games.
The scoring in the match was the inverse of how the boys sectional between the rivals went Tuesday at Kankakee Valley. In that one it was Chesterton that took a 1-0 lead at the half and Valpo that advanced with a 2-1 victory.
Trailing at the half can affect teams in various ways. Some panic and don’t exhibit the patience to let plays develop. Others get laser focused. Chesterton’s girls fell into the latter category.
“I think we mostly used it as motivation, if anything,” Montes said.
She said coach Ben Forgey told the team at halftime “that we needed to get ourselves together in the second half and push as hard as we can, and we did that.”
Avey plays through back pain, Montes through leg pain.
At one point during Thursday’s match, a Valpo player gave Avey a good shot from behind and she fell to the ground, trigging a group of adults to chant, “Flopper! Flopper! Flopper!’
If it had been students, Avey would have ignored it, but it wasn’t students, so she shot them a glare and an expression that said, “Really?”
“The weird thing is it’s adults that say it, so I just gave them a glance like, ‘You’re really saying this to a 17-year-old?’” she said.
Yes. Another similarity to the boys rivalry match at Kankakee Valley: The louder, more negative fan base had the quieter ride home.