Carson Shrader shined in his first game starting at forward.
The junior had four goals Wednesday night as Lake Central beat visiting Chesterton 6-2 in the Duneland Athletic Conference.
Shrader, who entered with seven goals, shifted from center midfield to up front.
“I liked it a lot,” Shrader said. “I was able to connect better with the other players on the wings and run off them and have scoring opportunities.”
Shrader netted a hat trick — with the first two goals assisted by Jack Bailey and the third a beautiful volley on a cross from Michael Bikos — to account for all the first-half scoring. He added a fourth goal with two-plus minutes left.
“Physically, athletically, soccer-wise, Carson has as many tools as any player who’s walked through this program,” Lake Central coach Jereme Rainwater said. “We’re just excited to see him come into his own.
“He not only understood what he needed to do going forward, but he also held up the ball for the rest of the players nicely. It was a phenomenal performance by him. We knew he could do it and we’re excited to see where he’s going.”
Shrader caught Chesterton’s defense flat before it adjusted, according to Trojans coach James Sensibaugh.
“They got us in transition and (went) in behind us with their one target player,” Sensibaugh said. “They did a good job.”
Class 3A No. 6 Lake Central (10-2, 5-0) took another step toward repeating as conference champion by defeating No. 13 Chesterton (6-3-2, 3-2). The Indians close with games at Valparaiso and Merrillville.
Rainwater wanted to see how his team would recover, particularly physically, after Saturday’s conference game against LaPorte and especially Monday’s 3-0 loss to Morton.
“You never know what can happen in a Duneland game on a Wednesday night,” Rainwater said. “Chesterton’s kids and coaches have been very good, so it was nice to see our boys respond, having a goal to be the DAC champ. Obviously that’s not done yet, but we knew this was a big measuring stick whether we could do it.”
After assisting Shrader’s third goal, Bikos scored a goal with 20 minutes left on an assist from Michael Pucci. Blanco Rodriguez-Lara also scored for Lake Central.
Harley Lohmeyer scored both of Chesterton’s goals, on a penalty kick with 14:58 left to make it 5-1 and on a direct kick with 23 seconds left.
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“Our goal coming into the season was to win the DAC, and we knew Chesterton was a phenomenal team,” Shrader said. “We came ready to play.”
Sensibaugh chalked it up to being one of those games.
“Tough night,” he said. “At moments, we played well.
“We haven’t had a game like that this year, but sometimes stuff like that happens. They came out smelling like a rose, so credit to them. We’re learn from it and go from there.”
Twitter @MichaelOsipoff