Freshman Michael Roberts, seniors Zarek Sierazy, Nate Kitchel, Alex Amaya, and Elliott McEvoy boost Trojans to 2-0 home win vs South Bend St. Joseph

Patrick Mochen
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton couldn’t turn a frenzy of opportunities into a goal in the first 10 minutes of its home boys soccer game against South Bend St. Joseph on Saturday, and entered halftime locked in a scoreless tie.
As has been the case at other times this season, the Trojans played a better second half than first and defeated the Huskies, 2-0, on goals by freshman Michael Roberts, off to a terrific start to his Chesterton career, and senior Zarek Sierazy, thus far the team’s most productive player.
The Trojans improved to 4-1 going into this coming Tuesday’s home game vs. Valparaiso and St. dropped to 1-4.
Looking forward to the match against the school’s chief rival, Trojans coach Lucas Sabedra bluntly said, “We need to play better as a team.”
Roberts had plenty of nice plays on his defender and made some good crosses early in the game, but the Trojans failed to turn the passes into goals. After the first 10 minutes, neither team generated much offense the rest of the half.
The win didn’t mean the failure to cash in on early opportunities was fine with the coach.
“When you don’t score on those chances,” Sabedra said, “it gives the other team courage and more confidence moving forward in the game that they can stay in it. When we don't finish those early opportunities, it puts us in a bad position because then we become a little bit more reserved.”
Roberts’ goal gave him three for the season, tying him with fellow freshman Tyler Hecimovich for second-most on the team, to go with three assists.
With 24 minutes left in the half, Sierazy played the ball to Roberts, who slipped by two defenders, deftly cut around the goalie, and shot around another defender to get the Trojans on the board. Roberts, who usually is feeding the ball to the upperclassmen with crossers, decided to take the initiative, and gave the Trojans the lead in a tight game.
“Mike is very special,” Sabedra said. “In this situation, we try to preach a team game, staying connected, moving the ball together, and the first goal was a complete individual effort on his part.”
Three minutes before Roberts’ goal, Sierazy moved the ball downfield with a give-and-go, and then Alex Amaya got the ball and hit a great shot for what would have been the first goal, but it was ruled offside. Immediately afterward, St. Joe came down the field and took a shot on goal. Senior goalkeeper Elliott McEvoy read it perfectly and made a diving save to keep his shutout intact.
With five minutes left, junior center defensive mid Ethan Virgil stole the ball and played a pass to Sierazy downfield. Sierazy beat the Huskies’ aggressive goalkeeper to the ball, and kicked it between two defenders to get the insurance goal. It was Sierazy’s team-leading sixth goal, five games into the season. He also leads the team with six assists.
Chesterton played a defensively sound game, with Senior center back Nate Kitchel leading the back line and senior striker Alex Amaya leading up front.
Junior right center back Tyler Racette helped to keep South Bend St. Joe away from the net. Kitchel and Amaya both played very physically, fighting for the ball and making tackles. Kitchel drew a yellow card in the second half for his physicality, so he had to leave the field for a couple of minutes. Amaya also only left the field for a few minutes over the course of the game. Junior center attacking midfielder Cody Baughman had a few nice plays in the first half, including one pass where he flicked the ball over his own head scorpion style to Sierazy.
“He’s always moving, always playing well. He’s creative,” Roberts said of Baughman.
However, Baughman took a hard hit with three minutes left in the half and was taken out, not to return until the second half.
“He was hurting and he was dizzy, so he didn’t come back in,” head coach Lucas Sabedra said. “He didn’t play for the first 30 minutes [of the second half] and when he came out there at the end he didn't really look like himself so I brought him right back out.”
For the rest of the game St. Joe did its best to get to the net, but the defense of Racette, Kitchel,
junior left center back Adam Combs, and goalie McEvoy kept the Huskies scoreless.
“Tyler [Racette] and Adam [Combs] are very technically sound, tough defenders, good 1v 1s, and they stay connected with Kitchel so that’s very important to us,” Sabedra said.
Throughout the game, fans could hear Kitchel and McEvoy communicating with the rest of the defense.
“Kitchel’s a big voice back there,” Sabedra said. “He’s very coachable and very good at communicating.”
Ending the day with the opponent’s side of the scoreboard reading zero is nothing new for McEvoy. Last year, he shared varsity goalie duties with then senior Sam Macker.
“Elliott’s a great keeper. We love him back there,” Kitchel said. “He’s confident on his feet, confident in the air. He locked it down and got a clean sheet today and that's what we expect out of him, and that's what he expects out of us.”
Amaya has been a varsity starter for three seasons. He plays several positions, playing more midfield sophomore year and more toward the front as a senior.
“It doesn’t matter what position we put him in, he’s going to be one of the top players at any position,” Sabedra said. “If we told him to play goalie, he would probably be one of the top players, but right now he's nursing a little quad injury, so he's not able to play to the best of his effectiveness, but he is one of our top guys for sure.”
Nobody watching the game could tell that Amaya was battling an injury because of the physicality with which he played. He just recently ended his own scoring drought, which went from his sophomore year against Lake Central (Sep. 20, 2023) to this year against Michigan City (Aug. 27, 2025). In between, Amaya has set up several teammates for goals. He had three assists last season and has two so far this season.
“Alex is a great captain to have,” Roberts said. “His passes are always perfect. He’s always fighting for you, if you get tackled, he’s there. He’s one of the best players I’ve played with.”
Tuesday, with Valpo in town for the rivalry game, all the best players from both sides will be motivated to be at their best.