Hobart rides dual-threat quarterback, explosive receiver and stong lines on both sides to defeat Chesterton in season-opener, 20-3

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Chesterton’s best play in an untidy season-opening, 20-3 Friday night loss to Hobart at Brickyard Stadium started with the kick returner fumbling the ball.
It was that sort of evening for the young Trojans, who have eight more opportunities in the regular season to become better than they were in the first one.
Senior receiver/return man Gus Wisch returned a kickoff 66 yards to set up the Trojans’ only points, furnished by Mace Redman’s 32-yard field goal.
Wisch fumbled the kick and chased the football, picked it up without breaking stride and made like the Batmobile leaving the cave tearing down the left sideline.
“Dropped it, got scared, and then I saw everything kind of open up for me, took it down the sideline as far as I can,” was how Wisch described it. “It just kind of just opened up for me.”
Another special teams miscue didn’t have nearly as happy an ending for the Trojans. Already trailing 13-3 and facing fourth-and-15 from the 20, Chesterton had a bad exchange between the snapper and punter and Hobart’s Logan Peters took the ball into the end zone for the Brickies third touchdown to make it 20-3 late in second half, and the score never changed.
Trojans head coach Mark Peterson struck an encouraging tone as he gathered his players at midfield for the postgame huddle, according to Wisch.
“Definitely sloppy, but like coach was hammering in the huddle, elasticity,” Wisch said. “We’re going to stretch, stretch, stretch, but we’re not going to break, and we’re going to come back together, still be a family, and play better next week.”
Hobart junior dual-threat quarterback Aleks Tatum was an inexperienced talent a year ago playing against an veteran Chesterton defense. This time, the script was flipped, and it wasn’t difficult to pick out the experienced trigger man facing the young defense. He had plenty of time to scan the field, and when nobody was open, he piled up yards running.
Tatum completed 15 of 24 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown and rushed for 70 yards and a touchdown.
“He did a nice job. Any time you can run your quarterback and have a couple of extra lead blockers, you turn it into 5-on-4s and 4-on-3s, so we knew that that was coming,” Chesterton head coach Mark Peterson said. “And he’s solid, got some great size and can do some really good stuff. Teams are going to struggle being able to stop him because they have some big kids up front, and he’s a good runner.”
The Trojans had trouble keeping up with junior receiver Bryce Tolliver, who had 103 yards in receptions, one for a 15-yard touchdown, and the Brickies won the battle up front on both sides of the ball.
“They came out with an experienced group that played at a different level in some of our inexperienced positions, and I don’t say from a negative perspective,” Peterson said. “Their experience played in their favor. And I think that was demonstrated up front, especially with the speed with which they played. That’s something that we have to match.”
Chesterton sophomore quarterback Hunter Boyd started his varsity career with his feet in the end zone and the ball inside the 1 after the Brickies downed a punt there. It was a sign of things to come for Boyd, who was under duress most of the night playing behind a line that was missing injured third-year starter Braxton Ozug.
Often required to improvise, Boyd completed 18 of 29 passes for 119 yards. On consecutive plays early in the third quarter, he threw a 17-yard completion to Wisch and a 22-yard pass play to Louis Raffin.
“Hunter’s going to be great. I think Hunter did some really nice things tonight,” Peterson said. “We have to shore up some things up front. He got flushed a little bit and there were some pressure situations where I thought he actually responded pretty well. In a first start for a kid in his situation, really not worried. He’s going to grow and he’s going to develop. He’s got some great potential. We’re not pushing the panic button here. We just have to fine-tune some things to get better.”
The defense had trouble stopping Tatum and Tolliver in the first half but also produced timely turnovers. Bradley Robinson flashed smooth athleticism in high-pointing the football for an interception of Tatum. Logan Chestovich recovered a fumble. Colin Kellogg punched the football right out of a Hobart player’s arms for a forced fumble on the play. Late in the game, Tyler Dhaemers scooped a fumble and returned it 39 yards, which ensured a second-half shutout of the Brickies.
“We’re going to get it fixed,” predicted Robinson, who also had a 19-yard punt return. “We’re going to get this stuff fixed out and we’re going to come back strong next week.”
Next up for Trojans is their home opener against Hammond Morton on Friday, Aug. 29.