After scoreless first half, Chesterton boys soccer team dominates ball in second half but does not cash in on multiple opportunities and loses late at Valparaiso, 1-0

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Typically, the DAC boys soccer race is decided by which team or teams have the best record in the round-robin among the top four schools: Chesterton, Crown Point, Lake Central and Valparaiso.
So, three games determine the fate of the contenders. Chesterton had its first opportunity to take care of one of those challenges on a rainy Wednesday night in Valparaiso and lost.
Chesterton had far more scoring opportunities than the Vikings, but that’ s not how the winner is determined, and Valparaiso remained undefeated with a 1-0 victory.
Vikings sophomore midfielder Patrick Kilmek scored with 2:32 remaining and Valpo improved to 6-0 overall and 3-0 in the DAC. Chesterton dropped to 4-2 and 2-1.
It wasn’t for lack of effort on the part of the Trojans. If anything, they had the look of players who might have been a little too hyped for the big game and had trouble slowing down enough to control their shots, of which there were many delivered from close to goalkeeper Zach Bayer, who turned away the good shots and benefitted from the errant ones.
“One team has to win,” Chesterton coach Lucas Sabedra said. “If you don’t finish your chances and the other team does, that’s the story.”
Now, to extend its streak of DAC titles, outright or shared, Chesterton must defeat both Crown Point (at home Sep. 17) and Lake Central (on the road Sep. 24) and hope that one of the two schools defeats Valparaiso.
At the moment, Valpo and Lake Central are tied atop the DAC standings with 3-0 record. Chesterton and Crown Point, which lost Aug. 27 at LC, are 2-1. Portage and Merrillville are tied for fifth with 1-2 records and LaPorte and Michigan City are tied for seventh with 0-3 marks in DAC play.
The way Chesterton picked up its first conference loss was particularly frustrating because of the multiple scoring opportunities and how late the Valpo goal came.
“I can’t tell you how many opportunities we had 1 v. 1 with the goalie right in front of the goal, kicking the ball 30 yards over the goal trying to finish 5-foot sitters,” Sabedra said.
Throughout the second half, Sabedra was gesturing and vocalizing to his players to stop hurrying, urging them to remain calm and gain control of their shots.
“Nerves come in and you’re rushing things and you’re not having composure,” he said. “All we talked about was keeping the ball on the ground on shots. If you’re taking volleys like that all you’ve got to do is hit the ball off the turf, not swing your foot up and try to hit a field goal here. It’s just rushing shots and not having composure and not having the right mindset to finish those opportunities, so that’s what sets the good players apart from the great players.”
Especially in the second half, when the rain picked up, Chesterton dominated the ball and maneuvered around defenders to take their shots. The wet, slick turf makes the ball scoot faster, a factor in why Sabedra repeatedly instructed players to hit the ball on the ground. Perhaps because of adrenaline flowing so rapidly, too frequently players didn’t put the right touch on the ball to keep it on the ground.
For a six-minute stretch starting about 25 minutes into the second half, Chesterton relentlessly moved the ball deep into Vikings territory, but never could push the ball into the net.
“You want to use that (wet turf) to your advantage when you have those shots, especially with those balls bouncing around instead of trying to hit a perfect goal in the air,” Sabedra said. “And the chance they had went through the goalie’s hands.”
Sabedra praised the play of sophomore David Shumate, saying “David did a good job when he went in the middle, and he controlled the tempo of the game later.”
He explained why he turned to Shumate.
“The way they were playing was very ugly, but it’s an effective style. All they were looking to do was play a long ball and get in behind it and I thought we did a pretty good job handling that, knowing they were just trying to hit the ball up the field as high as they could, but there’s a giant gap in the middle and then your midfielders are running away and they’re not coming to get the ball,” Sabedra said. “That’s a big problem and we talked about it and nothing really changed much.”