Chesterton vs. Valpo is always a hyped-up game, no matter what sport. Valpo students wear white, Chesterton students wear black, and tensions are always high. It was no different this past Friday when the Trojans (1-3, 1-1 DAC) faced off against the reigning state champions from Valparaiso (3-1, 2-0). With starting quarterback Sebastian Boswell out for the season for Chesterton, the Trojans again turned to junior quarterback Brady McCormack to lead them against the Vikings.
The first quarter started out rough for Chesterton, with Valpo senior quarterback Justin Clark showing why he’s a top-5 QB in the region, airing out a 27-yard touchdown pass to put the Vikings up 7-0. The rest of the first quarter was uneventful with both teams exchanging punts.
The second quarter wasn’t much more positive for Chesterton, beginning with Valpo scoring on a 15-yard rushing TD putting the Vikings up 14-0.
While trying to get the Trojans back in the game, McCormack scrambled for a big gain but was hit late after going out of bounds. Disaster struck the Trojans for the second week this season as McCormack was injured, and Chesterton had once again lost their starting QB. With McCormack out, there was only one option for head coach Mark Peterson: junior CJ Perez. Perez had started for Chesterton’s JV team all season, but he had only seen the field a few times on Friday nights, mainly in ‘mop up duty.’ Now, he was being asked to try and spark a comeback against the Trojans’ biggest rival and defending state champions.
To say that Perez surprised fans would be an understatement. After being tossed into a game that Chesterton had yet to break into field goal range, Perez hit sophomore receiver Louis Raffin coming across the middle for a 41-yard TD. The crowd went ballistic and chants of ‘CJ CJ’ could be heard from all across the home side of the stadium. The Trojans had cut the lead to 7 and there was a sense of hope amongst Chesterton fans.
That hope was proven irrelevant, however, when Valpo junior Julian Stokes ran his way to a 42-yard TD less than a minute later. The 3rd quarter ended with a lopsided score of 21-7 in favor of the Vikings, and morale from the home fans was similar to that of the average Chicago Bears fan: incredibly low. Despite this, the Vikings apparently weren’t done in terms of scoring and at the beginning of the fourth quarter, crossed the goal line to put themselves up 28-7. Halfway through the last quarter, Chesterton topped off the game with a 6-yard TD run by junior Kaden Summer. When the final whistle blew, the scoreboard flashed 28-14, snapping Chesterton’s modest 1-game winning streak.
Although the outcome wasn’t what they wanted, Chesterton still had some outstanding performers. Despite his early exit from the game, McCormack led the team with 32 rushing yards. Perez was 11/26 and ended with 132 passing yards and Raffin racked up 58 receiving yards. Senior defensive back Hayden Demarco had a monster game with 14 tackles and 5 assists, and junior linebacker Josh Davis followed with 7 tackles, assisting on 2 others.
With a 1-4 record, Chesterton travels to Portage this Friday in hopes of beating the Indians in their homecoming game. The game starts at 7 at the PHS football stadium and the theme is Hawaiian so show up in your fanciest leis and hula skirts!
