Last Friday night, the CHS Football team faced Hammond Morton in their last game of nonconference play, finishing the game with a victory of 36-23. The Trojans played a very up and down game, but eventually got a firm hold on a lead and never let go. Offensively, the Trojans focused on a strong rushing attack, and defensively they focused on guarding the Governor’s star receiver, Lebron Hill.
On the first drive, Morton had several big chunk plays, getting them down near the goal line. The defense nearly gave up the touchdown, but senior cornerback Jude Palm ran from the opposite sideline to take the runner out of bounds at the one yard line. The huge effort from Palm paid off when the Trojans recovered a fumble two plays later.
The first series was rocky for the Trojan offense. A costly penalty caused the Trojans to go three and out. Punting from their endzone, an errant snap went out the back, causing a safety. Chesterton gave up two points and had to kickoff to the Governors from their own 20 yard line. On the kickoff, the Governors couldn’t recover the squib and Palm recovered the ball, which gave it right back to the Chesterton offense.
The Trojans would get the ball into Morton territory, but turned the ball over on downs. The Chesterton defense shut down Morton again, and caused them to punt. With several rushes, Junior running back Andrew Goveia got the offense down to the goal line and senior Quarterback BradyMcCormack punched the ball in. Junior kicker Drew Pacilio made the point after attempt to make the score 7-2.
The Chesterton defense proceeded to take the life out of the Morton offense, as the Governors went three and out again. Chesterton moved quickly down the field to score another rushing touchdown by McCormack, which put the Trojans up 14-2, after another Pacilio kick. Morton finally found life on offense and scored a rushing touchdown on their next drive. Just before halftime junior Alex Zairis had a nice return on the kickoff, and the Trojans kept the momentum going. Goveia received a pass from McCormack, and ran down the sideline, hurdled a defender, and scored a 35 yard touchdown.
“I felt great, anytime there’s open field you know I get pretty excited,” Goveia said in relation to the end of half score.
The half ended with the Trojans up 21-7.
McCormack and crew began the second half strongly, ending their drive with a 10 yard McCormack rush, his third of the day. Morton followed that with a touchdown of their own, scoring to make it 28-15. Goveia matched the opponent by marching the Trojans with several chunk plays to the one yard line.
“The o-line has done great every single game, so far they’ve done great and I just follow them, and me and Brady score touchdowns”, Goveia said.
McCormack once again punched the ball in to amass a fourth touchdown on the ground. An error occurred on the PAT, and senior receiver Corey (CJ) Perez ran into the endzone scoring a two point conversion instead of the usual one point PAT. Neither offense could find any progress, except when Morton ran a bubble screen pass and the receiver ran the ball for a 66 yard touchdown, making the score 36-23.
The Chesterton defense responded well to the challenge of limiting the Morton offense, regardless of the athletic ability on the other side of the ball. Lebron Hill, the most notable player on Hammond Morton, was limited in receptions thanks to the secondary and the game plan of defensive coordinator Coach Wally McCormack.
“They present us with some really really great skill kids, and I thought we did great,” Coach McCormack explained. “We try to preach it’s a team effort on defense.”
Junior linebacker Robert Stabolito led the Trojans in tackles with 8 tackles and also bringing in a fumble. Stabolito is making a habit of making big plays for the Trojans to kill the opponent’s drives. Stabolito offered a similar sentiment as his coordinator.
“The corners did really well. As a team we did pretty well,” Stabolito concluded.
Goveia would end the night with 31 carries for 190 yards and three receptions for 51 yards. With the offensive line and Senior fullback Kaden Summer leading the way, Goveia was able to rip his way through the Governor defense. Taking 31 carries would break down most running backs, but Goveia kept on fighting, leading the Trojans to another victory. CHS football is still undefeated after two games, and is thrilled to open up conference play against Michigan City on the Chesterton turf this Friday, September 6.
