Chesterton Victorious in Football Season Debut

Trojan running game dominant during opening game rout of Brickies

Audrey White, Opinions Section Editor

August 19th, 2022 marked a sensational moment for the Chesterton Trojans, who opened their football season against the Hobart Brickies, claiming victory in the first game of the season. 

In the first quarter, senior Bryce Thoma caught a rocket of a pass from sophomore quarterback Brady McCormack, to score the first Trojan touchdown this season.  The pass went for 85 yards. 

Following the touchdown pass, Hobart star quarterback Noah Erlich made a deep pass of his own that was intercepted by the Trojans at midfield. After much success using their running game, the Trojans scored a rushing touchdown from the five-yard line, with only 4.5 seconds left in the quarter, increasing their lead to two touchdowns.

When the first quarter ended, Chesterton had the lead by a score of 14-0.

During the second quarter, the Trojans scored twice more, once via Ethan Troy’s 61-yard fumble return, followed by another McCormack rushing touchdown. The Brickies finally forced a Trojan punt near the end of the first half.  Unfortunately for the Trojans, the ball was snapped over the head of Trojan punter Aiden Weaver, and recovered by Hobart at the Chesterton two yard line. Hobart finally scored, capitalizing on the short field, bringing the halftime score to 28-7.

“So we started off really really good, we started getting in their heads a little bit we kinda fell back, but once we started trusting ourselves, believing in ourselves we picked it back up…and once we keep that mentality in us, we’re gonna be a great team,” Jorge Ortiz (senior) said.

The halftime show displayed the talents in both the music and dance departments of Chesterton High School (CHS). The Trojan Guard put on a performance alongside the Color Guard, followed by a choreographed dance done by CHS’s Dance Team. 

In quarter three, Erlich completed a 59 yard pass for another Hobart touchdown, but the Trojans remained in the lead with the score now at 28-14.

By quarter 4, the Chesterton Trojans continued to lead the scores at 35-14. Hobart called some time outs to save some clock, but Chesterton ran the ball for first down after first down to seal the game and run out the clock. By the time the final whistle sounded, the Chesterton Trojans were victorious over the Hobart Brickies with a final score of 35-14. An impressive presentation of fireworks sailed into the night sky on the field as the Trojans basked in triumph.

“[We] have an awesome group of kids both on offense and defense…really a nucleus of returning upperclassmen on the offense of the group and just a solid group of guys on defense that have just come back and really accepted their roles and responsibilities and just did a great job,” Coach Peterson said.

The win contributed to a confidence gain for the Trojans, “It’s huge, especially with them [Hobart] being ranked so high in the state…it just proves how good we are,” Cooper Watkins (junior) said.

The Trojans return to action this Friday night against the Warsaw Tigers.  The game will be played at Warsaw, and as a reminder to students who plan to attend, Warsaw is on Eastern Standard Time.