Mace Redman to the rescue with plenty of room to spare on decisive 33-yard field goal in Chesterton’s 20-19 win over visiting Hammond Morton

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans

After Chesterton had completed its 20-19 win over visiting Hammond Morton, the player who scored the winning points on a 33-yard field goal recounted what was going through his head.
“I go back there and think about the basics, really, it’s not that hard,” Redman said. “I know I can do it. I trust myself. I just go back to the basics.”
Basics such as?
“Keep my head down. Follow through. Keep my head in the right spot. Don’t look at anything around me. Don’t worry about the defenders. Eye on the ball,” he said. “Trust my holder. Trust my snapper. Trust them to do what they need to do because I have ultimate faith in those guys.”
Soffin planted the accurate snap quickly and Redman gave it a loud boot that had at least 10 yards to spare. As soon as he nailed it, Redman said he knew he had plenty on it.
“I saw it go above the uprights and I said, ‘Yeah. That’s a ball right there, that’s a big ball,” he said.
Chesterton kicking coach Vern VanNostran had two eager new kickers trying out for the job last season. Drew Pacilio beat out Redman and exceeded expectations with a strong, reliable season, especially for someone new to the art. An injured hip kept Pacilio from keeping the position and Redman won the job with a far better camp than when he was a newbie.
“That was the biggest moment of my life so far in sports and I expect much more to come, but that was a big one, down 2,” Redman said. “I knew that the coaches would trust me to get in and get that opportunity to hit the go-ahead field goal. I was like ‘Yeah, it’s on me.’ I took that responsibility, and I ran with it. I trust myself 100%.”
Redman said he is confident he can hit a field goal in a game anywhere up to 50 yards, and he said he booted one 57 yards once in practice.
He said he was not nervous for the big moment and nothing about the way he went about it betrayed his words.
“We’ve repped that enough in practice and I feel confident enough in my abilities that it doesn’t really faze me at all out there,” Redman said. “I go back to practice. I go back to the thousands of reps I’ve taken making that same kick. We create the game situations in practice, and I’ve done that on my own a million times.”
Practice is one thing, but game pressure is different. Yet, he said he becomes better in games.
“The adrenaline is a big boost,” he said. “It’s a big help, just the environment of the people here. It’s big. It’s important.”
His kick was big. It was important. It swung the game the way of the Trojans.