‘Stay calm’ and move on
Eaton makes 2 late saves as Chesterton holds off Valparaiso in sectional semifinal
In the waning minutes of a Class 3A Crown Point Sectional semifinal on Wednesday night, Chesterton’s Charlie Eaton drew on his experience.
The senior goalkeeper, who backstopped the Trojans to a 2018 state championship, helped them preserve a 3-2 win against Valparaiso.
Chesterton (16-2), ranked No. 3 in the state coaches poll, led 3-0 on the strength of a goal and two assists from junior midfielder/ forward Ryan O’Dell. The No. 12 Vikings (14-3-1) stormed back before Eaton made two clutch saves in the final five minutes.
“In those moments, you have to stay calm,” said Eaton, who also made key back-to-back saves 15 minutes into a game that was scoreless at the time. “As a captain and as a senior, you have to preach that to the team. As a guy who’s been there, my main message was just calm down.”
Chesterton will play Crown Point in the sectional final on Saturday. The Trojans edged the Bulldogs in penalty kicks Sept. 9 after the teams played to a 1-1 tie.
In the first semifinal on Wednesday, Gavin Stagg had a goal and three assists as No. 11 Crown Point (12-3-2) topped Hobart 4-0. Kyle Alb scored two goals and Kristian Simakoski added one against the Brickies (9-5-2).
Jared Hecimovich made three saves to record the shutout for the Bulldogs. Ryan Pimentel was excellent with 11 saves for the Brickies, who started five freshmen.
Chesterton then held off Valparaiso for its 11th straight win in the series, including four in sectionals, much to the relief of coach Lucas Sabedra.
“This is still a big rivalry game,” he said. “The emotions are so high. These kids are just battling out there. It was one of those games that wasn’t pretty. It was a grudge match.
“They did a really good job hanging in there the whole time, and you have to give them credit for sticking in until the very end. They had us against the ropes at the end, but we pulled out the win.”
First-year Valparaiso coach Mike Enghofer was proud of his team.
“For us to battle back the way we did, they were very clearly uncomfortable at the end of the game,” he said. “We were on the brink of walking away feeling like we came so far and we’re bitter about the way it ended. But there’s no way you can be.
“We were there until the very end. You’re disappointed, but you can’t look back and not be appreciative of where we’ve come and where we’ll still go. This is just the start for us.”
Chesterton started the scoring with two goals off O’Dell corner kicks, the first on a header by senior right defender Matt Lane with 18 minutes left in the first half and the second on a header by senior forward/midfielder Zack Bowser a minute into the second half.
The Trojans usually employ short corner kicks but recently added traditional ones — on Friday, according to Eaton.
“Those are pretty fresh, kind of new,” O’Dell said. “I was honestly surprised, but it felt so good. They weren’t working in practice, but they worked in the game, which matters most.”
O’Dell scored with 28 minutes left on an assist from Bowser to give Chesterton a 3-0 lead.
But Valparaiso rallied, sparked by moving junior central defender Breece Walls to forward and senior central defender Johnny Gjorseski into the midfield.
Walls scored with 10 minutes left after Jack Isroff got a touch on EJ Dreher’s free kick. Isroff converted a penalty kick with 5:30 left to make it 3-2.
“They threw numbers forward. … They (Walls and Gjorseski) bring a different dynamic to the game,” Eaton said. “As soon as they walked up the field, it was going to turn into a battle, and the game wasn’t over.”