LaPorte comes from behind to end Chesterton’s season, 20-17, a game dominated by Slicers junior running back Reed Raymond

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

For the first 68 of 96 minutes of game clock that LaPorte played football at Chesterton this season, the Slicers didn’t look up to the challenge of competing against the Trojans.
That was before LaPorte junior running back Reed Raymond took over Friday night’s sectional opener at Chesterton and led his team to a 20-17 comeback victory that brought the Trojans’ season to an abrupt end.
Taking handoffs and direct snaps, Raymond carried the ball 42 times for 244 yards and two touchdowns and threw a 72-yard touchdown pass on a double pass.
Fittingly, Raymond scored the winning touchdown with 48.4 seconds left. He took a direct snap, ran right, broke a couple of tackles and took it into the right side of the end zone to put the Slicers up 20-17.
A bad snap on the failed conversion meant the Trojans needed just to get into field goal range to have a shot at forcing overtime instead of needing to score a touchdown to win it in regulation.
Chesterton was able to advance the ball 30 yards on eight plays to the LaPorte 45, but the clock expired on fourth-and-four, and the Slicers (4-6) moved on to face cross-county rival Michigan City (7-3) next week in the sectional final. Chesterton finished 5-5.
All 20 of LaPorte’s points in the sectional semifinal victory came in the final couple of minutes of each half.
In a 34-14 victory over the Slicers on Sep. 12, the Trojans were able to limit Raymond to 51 yards and 2.6 yards per carry. This time, there was no stopping him.
“He’s tough to bring down,” Chesterton coach Mark Peterson said. “He’s a big body. He was a difference maker, for sure. No question.”
Junior linebacker Zane Westerlund was a difference maker for the Trojans all season, and he gave his team the early lead in this one. Just a few minutes into the night, Westerlund executed a clean block of a punt, reversed directions quickly, scooped up the football, and returned it nine yards to score the game’s first points.
The good vibes continued for the Trojans when senior Alex Zairis intercepted a pass, enabling senior Andrew Goveia to go to work on a 10-play, 61-yard drive, 47 covered by Goveia, the final two plays runs of 22 and 5 yards. Mace Redman’s second extra point put the hosts up 14-0 with 3:42 left in the first half.
To that point, Chesterton had outscored the Slicers in the two games 48-14. Then, in not much more time than it takes to say “uh-oh,” the game was tied.
After the teams traded turnovers, the first a fumble recovered by Chesterton junior Bradley Robinson, LaPorte tied the game on Raymond’s 1-yard TD run with 1:49 left in the half, cutting the Trojans’ lead to 14-7.
Raymond, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound back and the brother of former Slicers distance running standout Cole Raymond, now running for Indiana University, never looked bigger than on the play that tied the game.
Quarterback Adam Penziol threw a backwards pass to Raymond, who launched a deep, accurate throw to wide-open junior Khalen Matzke for a 72-yard touchdown with 44.8 seconds left in the half.
The play was a flashback to a double-pass Lake Central turned into a touchdown in a loss at Chesterton. This time it cost the Trojans, whose lead vanished oh so quickly.
The score remained 14-14 until well into the fourth quarter, when the Trojans’ 56-yard drive stalled at the 9, bringing the field goal unit onto the field. Redman’s field goal with 5:08 left in the game gave the Trojans a 17-14 lead.
Raymond had plenty of gas left in his tank and he led the Slicers on a 10-play, 73-yard TD drive. He carried the ball on nine of the plays for 62 yards. He started the drive with a 12-yard run and ended it with the 20-yard touchdown.
“The kid’s good,” Chesterton middle linebacker Robert Stabolito said. “Give it to him. Strong kid.”
As always after the final game, the Trojans’ seniors lingered on the field, not yet ready to walk off it for the final time in uniform.
Lucas Anderson had a big season at linebacker for the Trojans, leading the team in tackles and scoring three defensive touchdowns.
“I think this was the most we’ve been a team since I’ve been here,” Anderson said. “We all worked together.”
In his first year back from a knee injury that wiped out all but the first JV game of his sophomore year, defensive lineman Colin Kellogg waited his turn as a junior and made the most of his lone year as a starter.
“We had so many guys on this team who gave it their all and put forth their best effort every day and I just love everyone on this team, man,” Kellogg said. “The games are fun, but it’s just about the people that we have, from the coaches to the players, like Robert (Stabolito) and Andrew (Goveia) and everyone. I’m just going to remember all the fun times we had pushing each other to be better, and I’m going to remember we had a lot of great guys on this team. I really love what we did, and even though we didn’t win, I’m still happy I was here.”
So was his coach.
“This is such a great group of kids. This senior class is goofy, silly, intense, fun, good football players,” Peterson said. “I’m going to miss the heck out of them. I don’t get to coach these guys anymore and that’s the disappointing part. The loss hurts but now I don’t get to coach these guys anymore.”
And that hurts worse.