Check off step one.

The Chesterton football team took its first step in the post-season on Friday night with a dominating 37-7 Sectional opening victory over Michigan City.

“I was really nervous coming in for no other reason than I’ve seen how explosive this Michigan City team is,” Chesterton coach John Snyder said. “I really hoped our kids showed up to play and didn’t overlook them. I was really pleased. They are very focused. We have one goal and tonight was just the first step.”

The Trojan defense played its usual dominating style and forced a punt on the first possession of the game. Offensively, Chesterton went 57 yards in five plays with the final 36 coming on an pass from quarterback Chris Katsafaros to Joe Troop for a 7-0 lead.

“It was important to get off to a fast start and I think we did that,” Snyder said.

The Trojans would add 10 more points in the second quarter as Katsafaros hit Jake Andrews from 43 yards away and Nate Needham added a 31-yard field goal for a 17-0 halftime lead.

Defensively, CHS held the Wolves to just 60 yards of offense in the first half, including 72 passing and -12 rushing.

“Defensively, we played extremely well,” Snyder said. “We’ve been threatened with the pass the last couple of weeks and I thought we defended their passing game really well. When we can get pressure on the quarterback with our front three, that’s huge.”

Things kept rolling offensively for the Trojans in the third quarter as Katsafaros led a 13-play, 73-yard drive that took more than 5:00 off the clock before Jon Horvath scored from two yards out for a 23-0 lead.

On the next possession, Horvath scored again from three yards away pushing the lead to 30-0. Horvath finished with a game-high 90 yards rushing on 18 carries.

“The threat of what Joe (Troop) and Chris (Katsafaros) are able to do opens some things up,” Snyder said. “Tonight, it opened up Jon and he did the job. You can’t just stop one or two guys with us. We’ve got a lot of guys that can make plays offensively.”

The Wolves amassed just 63 yards of offense through three quarters against the Trojans starting defense and added a late touchdown against the second team to avoid the shutout.

Chesterton’s final score came on a 38-yard touchdown run from Zach Westergren.

The Trojans tallied 468 yards of offense in the victory (247 rushing, 221 passing). Katsafaros finished 17-of-22 through the air.

“It’s the time of year where you have to do more than one thing offensively,” Snyder said. “It was nice that we ran the ball and threw the ball well. I thought our receivers really caught the ball well and made some nice plays.”

The Trojans will travel to Merrillville on Friday night to face the Pirates in the second round of Sectional play. Merrillville beat Munster 28-21 in the opening round.

MC C

First Downs 6 24

Rushes-yards 27-29 42-247

Passing yards 76 221

Comp-Att-Int 11-23-1 17-22-1

Total Yards 105 468

Penalties-yards 6-30 6-62

Punts-avg. 7-40.4 1-33.0

Fumbles-lost 2-0 4-2

Michigan City 0 0 0 7 -- 7

Chesterton 7 10 6 14 -- 37

C -- Joe Troop 36 pass from Chris Katsafaros (Nate Needham kick)

C -- Jacob Andrews 43 pass from Katsafaros (Needham kick)

C -- Needham 31 fg

C -- Jon Horvath 2 run (run failed)

C -- Horvath 3 run (Needham kick)

MC -- Joe Smith 5 run (Paul Bryan kick)

C -- Zach Westergren 38 run (Needham kick)

Posted 10/22/2012