Workhorse senior running back Andrew Goveia shapes up as the key for Chesterton again tonight at Michigan City

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

For the second week in a row, Chesterton will not bring as much speed onto the football field, which projects to another heavy workload for clock-eating, chain-moving senior running back Andrew Goveia at Michigan City is likely.
That’s fine with him.
“Every night I go in expecting to get a lot of carries to hold it down for the team,” Goveia said.
In last week’s 20-19 victory over Hammond Morton, Goveia carried the ball 37 times and rushed for 150 yards and a touchdown. He did exactly what Coach Mark Peterson wanted from him, keeping the Morton offense on the sideline for long stretches.
The formations and blocking scheme, etc. might change from week to week, but the main man counted on to delivery a victory won’t. Hand it to Goveia and hope he can take the team on long drives is the basic approach.
Goveia banks on strong vision, seemingly knowing when and where to cut at just the right instant, and strong balance, taking hits that would knock lesser backs to the ground.
“The main thing they keep pounding is vision and I feel that’s the most important thing,” Goveia said. “We work on it every day in practice. It’s constant reps, constant working at it.”
So, it’s not just an instinct, but how does one work on vision as a running back?
“The defense gives us a great look every practice,” Goveia said. “I just work against them and it’s an iron- sharpening-iron relationship.”
Receiver/fullback Patrick Mochen weighed in on what he thinks makes Goveia such a productive back.
“I think a big factor is his legs,” Mochen said. “He doesn’t stop his legs on contact. And once he gets past the first level, he is really smooth with his moves. He just keeps going downhill, regardless of whether he’s getting hit.”
Goveia knows how to use his blockers, and to some extent at least, a running back is only as good as his blockers allow him to be.
“Gove’s job isn’t really a one-man job,” Mochen said. “There are definitely certain games where Gove’s yards are an impressive reflection of him and there are definitely games where his stats are more of a reflection on our linemen. And I think (tight end/fullback) Mike (Rone) has done a really good job of sealing defenders so that Gove can cut up or cut around.”
How well the Trojans can compensate for not having senior center Carlos Leon on the field tonight figures to go a long way toward determining how many points they put on the scoreboard.
Chesterton (1-1) has had all three of its returning starters, Leon, Braxton Ozug and Tyler Nevious on the offensive line together in only one of the four halves, the first vs. Morton. Goveia rushed for 121 yards in that half, 72 in the other three combined.
He didn’t have as heavy a load in the opener, a 20-3 loss to Hobart, in which he carried the ball 12 times for 43 yards. Ozug was out with a back injury in that game and Leon missed the second half of the Morton game and will not play tonight because of an ankle injury.
Interestingly, Goveia cited two former NFL running backs who were noted on prospect reports coming out of college for blending power, vision and balance.
“I liked watching LaGarrette Blount and Jay Ajayi when they were with the Eagles,” Goveia said of the backs who helped the Eagles beat the Patriots, 41-33, in Super Bowl LII. “I liked the way they ran.”
Everyone associated with Chesterton football likes the way Goveia runs with the football and he’s happy to do it as many times as the Trojans need him to carry it to keep City’s explosive offense off the field.