By TR HARLAN

When the off season conditioning program for the Chesterton boys soccer team started, the majority of the talk focused on a State Championship.

Who knew they would actually get a chance at it?

The Trojans played the Nation’s No. 1 ranked team, Evansville Memorial, as tough as anyone, but fell 1-0 to the Tigers at Kuntz Stadium in Indianapolis on Saturday night.

“There isn’t a person on this team that didn’t believe we could win a state championship from day one,” Chesterton coach Jamie Sensibaugh said. “It’s not arrogance or anything like that. We knew our abilities and some of the teams we played in the summer.”

The Trojans and Tigers played to a scoreless tie at halftime with Evansville Memorial outshooting Chesterton 14-2. Only four of the Tigers shots were on goal and all were stopped by Alex Mannen.

“The game went back-and-forth both ways,” Sensibaugh said. “Both teams were able to get in behind one another and get some shots off. I thought Alex Mannen had another great game in goal for us.”

Chesterton’s best chance for a goal came with just over 22:00 left in regulation as Cole Galloway ripped a shot with his right foot that hit the crossbar and bounced away.

“They had some opportunities that didn’t go in and so did we,” Sensibaugh said. “Cole’s is the one I remember the most. What a bullet that was. That really would have been nice.”

Evansville Memorial, ranked No. 1 nationally by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, would get the game’s only go with 19:31 left on the clock. A Chesterton foul just outside the goal box led to an Andrew Fuchs goal off a pass from Daniel Farabaugh.

“Evansville Memorial is a really good team,” Sensibaugh said. “They were very fast on the outside and a couple of times they carried it all the way to the line. The foul just before the goal led to a header on the backside.

“Normally, we do a decent job of checking that, but they got one past us.”

The Tigers (23-0-2) claimed their first state title since the IHSAA began sanctioning soccer in 1994. They were making their third straight trip to the state finals and fifth overall.

“I’m so proud of this team for all the things they’ve accomplished this year,” Sensibaugh said. “I’m not just saying that because every coach does at the end of the year. Everything we did this year was as a team.

“We had contributions from player number one all the way through the end of the roster.”

Senior Jordan Lewis embodied the character and grit of the Trojans after suffering a gash on the left side of his head with just under five minutes remaining in the first half.

He would receiver stitches at the field during halftime and returned to play just three minutes into the second half.

“Jordan is a great competitor,” Sensibaugh said. “He busted his head wide open and didn’t want to come out. They stitched him up right here and he went back in to play.

“I’m not sure how eager he was to use his head after that though. That takes away one of our weapons up front.”

The Trojans finished the season 19-5-1 overall and made a remarkable run in the postseason after losing back-to-back games to finish the regular season.

“We’ve always said that we learn a lot from our losses,” Sensibaugh said. “Those two losses at the end of the regular season were at a time when you could still learn something from them. We only had five losses, but the expectations were so high, you’d have thought we were .500. We easily could have crumbled, but they didn’t.

“I hope they stand as a model for young kids to understand what can happen when you work hard. You need cohesiveness as a team and belief in everybody on your team and we had that.”

Evansville Memorial 1, Chesterton 0

AT KUNTZ STADIUM, INDIANAPOLIS

Evansville Memorial – Andrew Fuchs 1 goal; Daniel Farabaugh 1 assist; Trev Wilgus 2 saves.

Chesterton – Alex Mannen 7 saves.

Records – Evansville Memorial 24-0-2, Chesterton 19-5-1.

Posted 10/29/2007