After Week 1 debacle, Chesterton football regains respect by riding Sam Posavac’s three touchdown runs, more than 200 yards rushing, and a timely defense to 21-14 victory at Morton

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Sam Posavac ran so hard, so fast and so far Friday night at Hammond Morton that he ran outsiders’ pessimism over the prospects of this Chesterton football season right into the ground.
Repeatedly making something out of nothing, the Trojans’ junior transfer running back unofficially amassed 217 rushing yards and three touchdowns in leading his new team to a 21-14 victory that, based on projections, counts as an upset.
Portage’s leading tackler as a safety last season, Posavac scored on runs of 6, 43 and 22 yards. His 55-yard TD run was nullified on a holding penalty that, unlike the called-back Week 1 kick return for a TD, was not disputed by anyone.
The game ended with the Chesterton secondary successfully defending back-to-back passes to the left front corner of the end zone.
The Governors had one minute of game clock to go 82 yards and almost pulled it off, setting up either a game-tying kick or game-winning conversion, but almost was not good enough to neutralize Posavac’s big night.
Posavac came into the week hungry to erase last week’s penalty call and the lopsided nature of the 33-0 loss to Hobart and that hunger was fueled by prognosticators picking Morton to win.
“Super gratifying, very, very gratifying,” Posavac said of his first varsity win after playing for 0-10 Portage last season. “I’m so happy right now. You look at the predictions for the score, no one had us winning this game. We were ranked 5 (in Northwest Indiana) before we played Hobart. After, we weren’t ranked at all and Morton was ranked 5. Obviously, I’m not too worried about the rankings, but it was just nice to prove everybody wrong.”
He might not have been “worried” about rankings, but he clearly was fueled by them.
The Trojans (1-1) evened their record by winning the time of possession battle via Posavac and disrupting the passing plans of Morton (1-1) with big stops and a pair of interceptions. Chesterton junior quarterback Hunter Boyd did his part as well with a hot hand in a first quarter that ended with Chesterton leading 13-0. On the night, Boyd completed 7 of 11 passes for 91 yards. Juniors Brody Lane (52 receiving yards) and Mauro Semidei (26 receiving yards) gave him good targets.
Trojans sophomore Logan Leverenz played a monster game at outside linebacker in both stopping the run and dropping into pass coverage. Unofficially, he had 11 tackles, an interception and a pass break-up. Senior middle linebacker Zane Westerlund made several big tackles as well, including a sack.
Bradley Robinson picked off a pass and had several impressive punt returns, but took a hard shot from behind on one of them and the ball spit out and was recovered by the Governors. Robinson compensated with a strong game on defense and joined fellow senior Chris Wilson in giving Morton’s intended targets no breathing room on the final two passes to the end zone.
Trojans 14th-year head coach Mark Peterson used the word “phenomenal” to describe Leverenz’s night and was quick to praise Westerlund as well.
“We’ve been waiting for Logan to come here ever since he was in middle school,” Peterson said of the player who takes practice reps at quarterback as well. “He’s a good one. He’s a good boy and he’s a heck of a football player.”
Leverenz’s interception came when he high-pointed the ball in textbook fashion.
“I didn’t know I had that many hops,” he said. “I can’t believe I did that. I’m still surprised I did that.”
He said he wasn’t known as a leaper on the freshman basketball team.
“I play basketball, but I’m not that good. Football is my main sport,” he said. “I love football. I love to hit. I wish I could go back out there right now.”
Leverenz played quarterback and linebacker for the freshman team a year ago and in middle school.
“I like them both,” he said. “Whatever I can play. But since I’m playing linebacker right now, I like that better. I just want to step up for the team. If this is what I can do to help, this is what I want to do.”
Said Posavac: “Hunter (Boyd) is our quarterback, but Logan has a bright future at quarterback. He can play all over the field. He’s just an athlete.”
The same can be said for Posavac, who hasn’t yet played defense in a game for Chesterton. His offensive workload has been so heavy that he experienced leg cramps in both games, hence no reason to push it by sending him onto the field on defense.
Posavac stayed on his back after his final carry at Morton, a 5-yard gain for a first down by inches with 3:07 left. He held his left leg straight in the air. Chesterton athletic trainer Bernie Stento came onto the field and helped Posavac loosen up the cramps and the running back walked to the sideline without assistance, but did not return.
In an indirect way, Posavac was one of the Trojans’ best defenders because of how he kept the chains moving, keeping Morton’s explosive offense off the field. One more first down would have been enough for Chesterton to kill the clock.
But without Posavac to carry them home, the Trojans fell a yard short and Morton took over on downs with 1:00 remaining, 82 yards from the end zone without any timeouts remaining.
What felt like the longest minute in the history of football to the spectators on the visiting side of the stadium came next.
The scrambling ability and big arm of undersized sophomore Amari Price, a second-year starter, can make a minute of game clock seem like an eternity of frayed nerves for the opposition.
It was enough time for Morton to be flagged for penalties four times, scrambled out of bounds once and completed 4 of 7 passes.
Playing with a leg injury that he rested in the second half of a Morton’s 34-7 rout of Portage in Week 1, 6-foot-5 receiver Cordero Bennett Jr. leaped for key catches, but didn’t have his usual speed. Morton still had an advantage in that area and repeatedly sent Ameer Daniels and Marcus McBride deep, including on the final two plays when they both were in position to leap for the ball.
Robinson and Wilson went up for the ball on the first try and one of them knocked the ball to the ground. The second pass was caught out of bounds by a Morton receiver and Chesterton’s upset victory was in the books.
How did the Trojans improve that much in one week?
“We were fully locked in,” Leverenz said. “Everybody came together and we were watching film with Coach Pete during SRT. It was a completely different atmosphere at practice.”
Peterson made sure his players didn’t read too much into the poor performance in Week 1 to the point their confidence was destroyed.
“Everybody has to keep it in perspective. We started nine new players on offense last week and they hadn’t competed against anybody different since July 15, and that was just a summer scrimmage, because we didn’t have a scrimmage (canceled vs. Hammond Central in the wake of the derecho),” the coach said. “We got into the game and I felt like everybody was hyperventilating, everybody was excited, everybody was nervous. Getting into Week 2, all those things start to go away. And I think that’s what we saw tonight overall, collective execution on offense and defensively we did some really good stuff.”
And although the offensive line performed better vs. a smaller D-line than in Week 1, Posavac turned several small opportunities into big gains, which is what Peterson meant when he said that he is “get 1, plus 3 every time. And those are going to be the things that set him apart and give us an opportunity in games."
How does he do it?
"It’s a good little dip of the shoulder, a good spin step, just a variety of things," Peterson said. "He’s a talented athlete. He brings some athleticism to the table. That just helps him to be the best player he possibly can be."
Added Leverenz: “He runs hard. He doesn’t want to get tackled. He does not want to get tackled, and that’s what we need. I love watching him run that ball.”
Leverenz is joined by teammates, coaches and the town of Chesterton in that regard.
Listed at 5-feet-10 inches and 195 pounds, Posavac piles up the yardage in a variety of ways. He said his favorite running backs are Bijan Robinson of the Atlanta Falcons and Kyle Monangai of the Bears.
He shares traits with the running backs who have contrasting styles. Like both, he has a low center of gravity and the balance of both to stay on his feet after the first contact. In Monangi fashion, he can run right into a defender and keep gaining yards. He has not shown Robinson’s pass-catching abilities, but has a shiftiness that calls to mind the fleet Robinson and has breakaway speed of his own that most high school defenders can’t match.
“I feel like most running backs are either real shifty or they can truck people,” Posavac said. “I feel like I can kind of do both.”
Kind of?