With tornadoes, the beginning of school and missed school days in a week, the Chesterton football team finally got to start its season with a 44-0 victory over Lew Wallace Friday night.

“This is a difficult type of game because you want to come out and perform and execute,” Chesterton coach John Snyder said. “We’ve been scrimmaging for a long time now and it was time to get a game in. Give the Lew Wallace kids and coaching staff credit for the late start they got and the way they played tonight.”

The Trojan defense passed the first test of the season with an immediate three-and-out and turning the ball over to the offense at the their own 43-yard line.

I didn’t take Chesterton’s offense long to get going as quarterback Jon Watson engineered a three-play drive that included a six-yard keeper, a 20-yard run by Greg Nowak and a 17-yard touchdown gallop by Dan Jensen.

“There were some things we didn’t do right in the first couple of drives and that’s frustrating,” Snyder said. “We’ve got to be able to read the right guy and make the right decisions. With our line coming back, are we getting a push and getting up-field to allow our backs and skill guys a chance to gain yards?”

After another three-and-out, the Trojan offense took over at the Lew Wallace 44-yard line and needed just four plays to score its second TD. Nowak punched it in from four yards out for a 13-0 lead.

“Greg’s a tough kid that runs well,” Snyder said. “He’s got better speed than people realize. He didn’t play it at all last year and once he gets a feel for where the creases are going to be, I think he could be really good.”

The team’s traded turnovers on the next two possessions before a second CHS interception set them up at the Lew Wallace 33-yard line. Five plays later, Taylor Brown scored from two yards away.

“We looked clean and sharp to start with, then kind of fizzled out a little bit in the second quarter,” Snyder said.

The defense didn’t give the offense a chance as Chesterton’s Sevante Yates recorded the third consecutive interception of quarterback Jaree Crawford and returned it 40 yards for a touchdown and a 27-0 lead.

“One of our goals was a shutout,” Snyder said. “Lew Wallace has some really good, big strong athletes.”

The Trojan offense struggled in the second quarter as they ran just four plays resulting in a fumble and a missed field goal.

“We’ve got to get better,” Snyder said. “With our no-huddle (offense), you wait to see how they are going to lineup and they were late getting on the field that caused us some problems. We have some things to work on.”

The Trojan offense returned to work in the third quarter and scored two touchdown on a 15-yard run by Watson and a four-yard run by Nowak. Watson finished with 95 yards on 10 carries, while Nowak had 87 yards on 10 carries.

“We went back to the basics in the third quarter and performed better again,” Snyder said. “I thought Jon did a good job. We made a couple of wrong reads, but for the most part he did a good job.”

Chesterton’s final score came at the end of a 10-play, 54-yard drive as Kyle Schmidt hit a 33-yard field goal.

“My disappointment is that we didn’t get more kids in without a JV game this week. With the running clock in the second half, it was just impossible.”

The Trojans return to action on Friday when they travel to New Prairie for a 7 p.m. kickoff.

“We’ve got to get better,” Snyder said. “New Prairie is going to be a much better and bigger test for us.”

LW C

First Downs 6 15

Net Yards Rushing 22 305

Net Yards Passing 81 0

Total Yards Gained 103 305

Passes att/comp/int 12/3/3 4/0/0

Punts/avg. 5/26.0 0/0

Penalties/yards 8/44 5/45

Fumbles/lost 9/0 3/2

Lew Wallace 0 0 0 0 -- 0

Chesterton 20 7 7 10 -- 44

C - Dan Jensen 17 run (Kyle Schmidt kick)

C - Greg Nowak 5 run (kick failed)

C - Taylor Brown 5 run (Schmidt kick)

C - Sevante Yates 40 INT return (Schmidt kick)

C - Jon Watson 15 run (Schmidt kick)

C - Nowak 4 run (Schmidt kick)

C - Schmidt 32 field goal

The Chesterton Freshman football team defeated he Portage Indians on Saturday 24-6.

The Trojans were in control from the start of the game with the first score coming on a 30-yard scamper from Joe Troop and an Austin Kreiter point-after kick to make the score 7-0.

On the second possession, the Trojans scored again on a 24-yard field goal from Kreiter. Just before the half, Chris Katsofaris took it in from the one-yard line to make the score 17-0.

The final score of the game for the Trojans came when Troop picked off a pass from the 45 and took it all the way for a touchdown. Kreiter ended the scoring by hitting another extra point and going perfect on the day.

Defensively, big plays were made by Troop, Hunter Royer, Mike Thanos (7 tackles), Joe Bishop and Trevor Walker.

Posted 8/24/2009