Adey Avey scores two goals, assists one and fellow seniors join her in leading Chesterton to a 3-0 win over visiting Valparaiso

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Sometimes an athlete will do something so spectacular that the scoreboard, the implications in the standings, the history with the opponent all momentarily vanish from the mind of the spectator who is left asking: Did I really just see that?
You did.
Adey Avey really did dribble past multiple defenders who tried to stop her, drew her right leg back and blasted a shot from distance that smacked the back of the top shelf of the net for her second goal of the night to go with an assist in leading Chesterton to a 3-0 win over Valparaiso on Tuesday at home.
It was quite a performance from Avey and the senior class in general, one that left last season’s pair of one-goal losses to the Vikings shrinking in the rearview mirror.
“I felt like I had a lot of space and wasn’t really thinking and I think that’s why I made it,” Avey said afterward, perhaps not realizing she had space because she created it with deft dribbling. “Sometimes when I think too much, I don’t place it very well. I was just trying to put as much power as I could with the ball so that even if it went down the middle maybe it would slip through her fingers.”
It was well out of reach, too high and way too fast, to bring the goalkeeper’s fingers into the equation.
“That’s a top player playing like a top player,” Forgey said. “How many tried to stop her and couldn’t?”
The goal came with inside of two minutes remaining and was nothing like her first goal, one that gave the Trojans (5-1, 2-0) a 2-0 first-half lead.
That goal, from the left side of the field, was too far right for the goalie to have a shot at it.
“The first one I just wanted to go low,” Avey said. “Ben loves it when I go low. I was just trying to keep the ball on the floor with as much power as I could.”
Why does Coach Ben Forgey like it when Avey challenges the goalie with a low shot?
“A lot of the goalkeepers around here, it’s harder for them to go low than it is to go high,” Avey said.
The velocity Avey puts on shots like the two that found the net Tuesday leaves keepers with so little time to react.
Her first goal came with a bonus: Avey did a couple of back handsprings to celebrate it, a delightful shocker for those who didn’t know it was coming.
“I was a cheerleader when I was little, so it’s like muscle memory now,” she said.
She would have made some gymnast.
“I was a gymnast when I was little, and the I quit for cheer,” she said. “I was pretty good at it.”
You don’t say.
Avey racked up a ton of steals as a basketball player in middle school and played for a couple of years in high school before deciding to concentrate on soccer.
Avey has given opponents determined to stop her and sending multiple players at her constantly something extra to think about by picking up more assists this year than in the past. And Eva Montes has given them reason to rethink that strategy as well by scoring in five of Chesterton’s six games.
“I just wanted to beat the one defender and then I wanted to slot it in the middle,” Avey said of her assist. “I have so much trust in Eva that she was going to one-tap it in the goal. I knew that if I put it in the right spot that she had it.”
This game followed the road map that Forgey charted for the season: Seniors lead, and the underclassmen do their jobs in solid fashion so that the seniors can make the difference.
Avey and Montes up top, Claire Vrahoretis dominating the middle of the field and center backs Alice Fancher and Salina Ford thwarting threats, never backing down from physical play, and sending the ball back the other way. Five seniors covering all three levels of the field.
“I’ve said she bosses the middle of the field around and that’s what it looks like,” Forgey said of Vrahoretis. “To me, it didn’t look like they wanted any part of Claire, and that’s probably the right decision. She’s a big, strong kid who wants to score, too.”
Ideally, what’s happening here with Chesterton’s most experienced players is how it works with seniors, but that’s not always the case. Some can feel done with high school. Long-time relationships can sour. No signs of any of that with this team so far.
“Our senior class is the best one in the region, and they showed it tonight,” Forgey said. “And Adey’s the best player in the region and I’m not even sure it’s close.”
Also, Forgey said, “That’s why we’ve won, the attitude of our seniors. We’ve needed the underclassmen to perform. They can only perform if they know who to follow and there is leadership that sometimes is vocal and sometimes is not. The seniors are the hardest workers we have and the underclassmen have no choice but to follow them.”
The center backs were largely responsible for neutralizing Valparaiso jet Mia Smith and the rest of the speedy attacking players.
“They’re best friends, too, so their chemistry is amazing back there,” Avey said of Fancher and Ford. “And they’re both so strong. All they want to do is win the ball, and I think that’s very important. And they’re such good kids, too. I just really love them.”
Avey and Montes appear to have a similar chemistry this season.
“I love Eva,” Avey said. “We’ve been playing together since we were really little, same club team. She’s such a hard worker and she’s really fast. She’ll do anything to win the ball, too. That’s what I love about her.
Avey and Vrahoretis are best friends as well, as evidenced by something they unveiled Tuesday. They both sported gargantuan tattoos on their right thighs and the bottoms of their right forearms.
Avey broke the best news of the night after the game: “They’re fake tats. I ordered them off Amazon and Claire and I just wanted to do it for the Valpo game. They’ll wash right off.”
Phew!
This win will have more staying power than the, it can be said now: unsightly fake tats.
“It’s our senior year,” Avey said. “It’s all Claire and I talk about. We want to play so hard, and this win tonight was really special.”
It was the third win of the day for Chesterton over Valparaiso. The Trojans’ tennis team defeated the Vikings, 3-2, in Valpo. Chesterton won at home in volleyball, 25-15, 25-18, 25-15, and the girls soccer team completed the hat trick.