By TR HARLAN

For the second time in three years, the Chesterton girls soccer team is wearing an IHSAA Regional crown.

The Trojans dominated from the opening minute and shutout Valparaiso 4-0 at Portage High School Wednesday night to earn a berth in Saturday’s Valparaiso Semistate. CHS will face Penn at 9:30 a.m.

“I knew this summer this was going to be a special group,” Chesterton coach David Galloway said. “We have eight very solid seniors. We carry around a brick and every foundation has to have a solid brick. I asked them what their contribution was going to be.

“I think you saw it tonight.”

Chesterton didn’t take long getting on the scoreboard with a goal from Lauren Seawright just 4:03 into the game off a restart crossing pass from Abby Beierwalter. Stephanie Fisher dished out her first assist of the game at the 22:50 mark when she found Ashton Balch for a 2-0 lead.

“I told Stephanie not to worry about the stuff off the field,” Galloway said. “Just concentrate on playing her game and I thought she played very well.”

The lead grew to 3-0 when Fisher battled a pair of Valparaiso defenders in front of the box and slid the ball past Viking goalkeeper Emma Kurt at the 31:24 mark.

“All three were very nice goals,” Galloway said. “The score being 3-0 at halftime was nice, but I wasn’t surprised.”

The finishing touches on the game came when Fisher got her second assist as Amanda Kollar came free at 51:28 to beat Kurt and set the final score.

“I was really happy with our defense again,” Galloway said. “That’s our fourth straight shutout in the tournament. I have all the confidence in the world in that defensive three (Catherine Pannekoek, Seawright and Katie Behrendt) and our goalkeeper (Carly Furto).”