On Friday, the CHS football team suffered a painful loss against the the top team in the IHSAA’s 2A division, Pioneer High School.  The Trojans (0-2) just couldn’t stop the late rally by the Panthers (2-0), falling 20-16.

     “It all comes down to the execution,” said seven-year Head Coach Mark Peterson, “at the end of the day, what happened, happened. We need to learn from this as a team and come back stronger against Michigan City this week.” 

     The Trojans made their presence felt early in the game, and took a 16-8 lead into the fourth quarter.  It was then that the Chesterton defense ran out of gas, giving up two touchdowns with two minutes left. 

     “We had a tough loss against Hobart week one, they’re number one in the state for their division (3A), same story for Pioneer (2A). We are going to move on from this and shake things up in the DAC this season,” Peterson continued.

     In the game, the Trojans were better in just about every statistical category, except the score.  Chesterton finished with 330 total yards, with 247 of them coming on the ground.  Ethan Pickering led the rushing attack with 93 yards, while Colby Bullock and Chris Mullen each scored touchdowns.  Mullen completed 9 of his 23 passes on the night for 83 yards and one interception.  Defensively, the Trojans were led by Gage DeMarco, who recorded 10 tackles, while Jackson Fleming recorded 2 sacks and 3 tackles for loss.  Evan Dickinson also had an interception in the loss for Chesterton.

     “Against Pioneer we made some mistakes that we are correcting this week in practice.  We are looking forward to showing those changes against City this Friday, and hopefully, shut them down,” concluded DeMarco     

     The Trojans will face off against the Michigan City Wolves this Friday, at home to kick off conference play.