Chesterton girls soccer coach David Galloway wants his team to fire the ball on net from everywhere.

Tuesday night the plan worked.

The Trojans improved to 3-1 overall on the season and won their Duneland Athletic Conference opener with a 2-1 victory at Valparaiso.

“I told them they have the green light to shoot from anywhere,” Galloway said. “It could be from 50 yards back for all I care. I want to put the ball on frame. You miss every shot you don’t take.”

The Trojans struck first when Rosie Biehl crossed a ball to the middle that was corralled by Elizabeth Benson. Benson fired from point-blank range past Valparaiso goalkeeper Emma Kurt at 32:03 of the first half for a 1-0 lead.

“I tried to tell the girls this is just one of 17 regular season games,” Galloways said. “I know how big the rivalry is because I’ve seen it on the boys side, but I didn’t want them to get overly emotional. They did anyway. I think it’ll propel us forward for the rest of the year.”

The physical play of the first half saw the Trojans dominate possession and play most of the 40 minutes in their offensive third. Abby Beierwalter’s shot from 30 yards out went off Kurt’s hands at the 20:53 mark for a 2-0 lead.

“I did expect a physical game tonight,” Galloway said. “Abby’s goal was the result of the five minutes we played soccer tonight. Abby and Ashton (Balch) combined in the midfield like we wanted.

“Abby played great tonight. It’s nice that Abby listened and did it.”

The Chesterton defense allowed just three shots on goal in the first half as goalkeeper Carly Furto went virtually untested.

“The biggest change we made defensively, and the most significant, was putting Catherine Pannekoek at fullback,” Galloway said. “I thought she played one heckuva game today. She won every ball she was supposed to with her head and played very composed and technical. She played a great game tonight.”

The second half was a change in play as Valparaiso controlled the ball and kept the Trojans in their own defensive third.

“We just didn’t want to win the ball,” Galloway said. “We’ll go back to practice and figure out how to get the ball to our forwards and be more effective.”

Valparaiso pulled within a goal at the 54:24 mark when Zoe Patterson fired a shot that bounced off of Furto’s hands and to the foot of Kate Johnson for the Vikings only goal.

“We’ve focused on being a much more physical team,” Galloway said. “We’re going to challenge for every ball. I thought we did a great job of that in the first half, but in the second half we didn’t do as good a job.”

The Trojans return to the field on Saturday when they host South Bend Clay with the junior varsity contest beginning at 10 a.m.

Chesterton -- Abby Beierwalter 1 goal; Elizabeth Benson 1 goal; Catherine Pannekoek 1 assist; Carly Furto 5 saves.

Valparaiso -- Kate Johnson 1 goal; Emma Kurt 9 saves.

Records -- Chesterton 3-1 (1-0 DAC), Valparaiso 1-1-1 (0-1 DAC).

Junior Varsity -- Chesterton 5-3.

Posted 8/25/2010